GW Scientific Fairbanks North Star Borough Mesonet: Meteorological Plots for Creamers Field Station (GFM02)

This station is located in the Creamer's Migratory Waterfowl Refuge, which is operated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The Friends of Creamer's Field also support the refuge operations and provide a wide variety of public education programs at the refuge. The location of this station is at the transition from the Farmer's Loop bowl area and the open floodplain formed by the Chena and Tanana Rivers. The data from this station is intended to benefit public users of Creamers Field and the general scientific community. This is a basic meteorological or weather station.

What are Current Weather Conditions?

The following are a series of plots showing the GFM02 near-real time meteorological conditions. The data is updated every 15 minutes through a 900 Mhz radio-telemetry network. Radio communication uses a very efficient low-power radio (RF450) that works well in interior Alaska extreme cold-climate conditions. The radios also use very lower power, important for solar powered stations.

How Does it Work?

The meteorological station is solar powered and uses equipment primarily from Campbell Scientific Inc. to read sensors, store and process data, and provide telemetry. A CR1000 data logger is used to measure and store data from a variety of sensors. Air temperature is measured by two different sensors. One sensor is a combined air temperature/relative humidity sensor (HMP45C). The second sensor is a custom built thermistor, which includes two YSI thermistors. This sensor allows colder temperature readings, common for Fairbanks winters. Wind speed and direction is measured by a R.M. Young 05103 wind monitor.

Data is automatically retrieved from the station using a Linux version of Loggernet Admin. This allows us a robust and secure communication system. The near-real-time data displays and plotting is achieved through RTMC-Pro. Data is automatically retrieved from the station every 15 minutes and online information is updated approximately every 15 minutes.

How are Temperatures in Alaska and Texas Different?

How does the weather at Creamers Field in Fairbanks compare with Caddo Lake in Northeast Texas? At times temperature conditions can be very different, while the at other times it can be the same. Why?
See current comparison data for Creamers Field (GFM02) and Caddo Lake (GCL01).

Contact George "Bub" Mueller at gmueller@gwscientific.com for additional information.