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Setting up the monitoring network
Before setting up a monitoring network a decision has to be made on the type of network that is appropriate for the country or region at hand. This chapter outlines the practical steps to set up such a network given the choice made in the previous chapter.
A station-based network
The most important types of monitoring stations are : Synoptic stations. These stations provide hourly data on a real-time basis. Usually these data are fed into the global GTS system of WMO. Most of these stations provide weather data that enable users to calculate the Penman-Monteith reference evaporation (ET0). A subset of these stations do upper-air observations, which is less interesting for agrometeorological purposes.
Realtime Rainfall stations. These stations monitor rainfall and send in their data to the National meteorological office once a day.
Off-line rainfall stations that send in their daily data once a month or even once a year. These stations are important for climatic studies and the provision of normal data.
Following the availability of data from these stations a number of monitoring networks can be set up. Details and number of stations will differ from country to country.
- Synoptic network
- Rainfall network
- Climatological network.