ISRO to market cheaper weather stations

Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of India's Department of Space, and Astra Microwave Products Ltd, a Hyderabad-based firm, have signed a deal to commercialise an automatic weather station (AWS). The AWS was developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), a release said here on Friday.

ISRO and Astra concluded the deal here on Friday, the release said. ISRO developed the AWS to be low-cost, compact, modular, rugged and capable of operating with minimum power from battery and solar panels for extended periods even in remote areas, the release said.

The AWS can continuously record weather data such as temperature, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction, rainfall, relative humidity and solar radiation.

Data from several stations can be collected via. data relay transponders on board ISRO's Insat-3A and Kalpana-1 satellites, which can receive data from remote platforms, the release said.

Weather information collected thus can be disseminated through the Village Resources Centres ISRO is setting up.

The station's features include easy programming of sensors, front panel display, archival of one-year's data and communication options via. Insat, telephone, modem and even cellular telephone.

A global positioning system device integrated with the AWS provides accurate time for transmission of data.

Under the agreement, Astra will build and deploy the stations based on user agency requirements, the release said.