Evaluation of the Tempest Weather System for use in meteorological and environmental research

The popularity of personal weather stations (PWSs) suggests that their data could be used to augment meteorological observations in locations where a high degree of land cover variability and security concerns make conventional research-grade meteorological observations impractical. This study evaluates one such PWS, the Tempest weather sensor. This PWS is an all-in-one wireless weather station that is solar powered and incorporates a sonic anemometer, solar radiation sensor, and haptic precipitation sensor. The data collected by the Tempest are sent to a nearby indoor hub where the data are pushed to the internet via a WiFi connection. To assess the accuracy and precision of the Tempest, five Tempest sensors were deployed to a regional airport in a 2-week field comparison that incorporated data from an official ASOS station as well as a portable research-grade weather station. A comparison of temperature, relative humidity, and station pressure across all seven platforms revealed that the Tempest data were positively biased compared to the reference data. Solar radiation data from the Tempest was compared favorably with a silicon pyranometer on the mobile research station, while the anemometer response characteristics likely contributed to a high bias in wind speed. Despite these biases, all meteorological variables exhibited a high correlation with the reference data. This study also explored the sources of some of the biases in temperature and relative humidity. It was found that a temperature correction algorithm and auto-calibrations likely contributed to the positive biases in these variables.