Specifications

TEAM Climate Monitoring Protocol 3.1
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4 C
C
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M
M
A
A
T
T
E
E
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S
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A
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O
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4.1 Basic Siting Requirements
It is crucial to carefully choose the location where the climate station will be installed to ensure the
highest reliability and quality of the data. Listed below are the basic minimum siting requirements for a
ground-based climate station. We follow here the general guidelines from the World Meteorological
Organization (WMO 2008) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA 1995):
 The climate station (3 m base tower with the instrumentation and the precipitation gauge)
should be located within a cleared and level piece of ground, no smaller than 65-70 m
2
.
 The station should NOT be located in the following areas:
o Sloping ground
o Hollows or valleys
o Rooftops
o Permanently shaded areas
o Swamps
o Low places that hold water after rain
 A fence to exclude unauthorized personnel should enclose this area.
 The ground should be covered with short grass or a surface representative of the site (not
asphalt or cement).
 Ideally, the climate station should be located in a clearing with an unobstructed view of the sky
(no obstacles above 5 degrees from the horizon) to fulfill the siting requirements of the solar
radiation sensor (see Table 2). If it is impossible to find a location that fulfills both the
requirements outlined above, then the station should be located based on the siting
requirements for temperature and precipitation (see Section 4.2 for siting guidelines). If no
suitable locations can be found that fulfill these requirements, then find the site that most
closely approximates the siting requirements for precipitation and temperature measurements
and document the site conditions carefully (see Section 4.4).
N
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e
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:
More information about equipment can be found in the “General overview
of equipment” video in the Climate Protocol section of the TEAM portal
(http://www.teamnetwork.org/en/protocols/climate) or by viewing Appendix A.1.