Media advisory issued October 7, 2002, effective immediately.
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  email: cblara@noble.org.

Foundation Farm Gets New Mesonet Weather Station
Data will benefit both Agricultural Division and forage group studies

ARDMORE, Okla. — Oklahoma?s newest Mesonet weather monitoring station was installed Oct. 1 at the Noble Foundation?s Pasture Demonstration Farm (PDF) west of Ardmore. Mesonet stations record environmental data such as air temperature, wind speed and direction, rainfall and soil temperature, among other things. The measurements are taken every five minutes, broadcast by radio every 15 minutes to a nearby police, sheriff?s or highway patrol station, and then sent to the University of Oklahoma via the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (OLETS).

The Foundation?s interest in Mesonet stems from the agricultural research and demonstration applications the weather data can provide. Two other Foundation properties, the Headquarters Farm in Ardmore and the Red River Demonstration and Research Farm near Burneyville, have had Mesonet stations since 1993.

"Besides the Red River farm, PDF is where we do the most cultivation of improved pastures, so we thought it would be the best location for the new weather station," said Bryan Unruh, Foundation research and demonstration manager. "Now we?ll have a weather station at or near all the areas where we do plot work."

Bringing the new station to PDF was a joint effort of the Foundation?s Agricultural Division and its Forage Biotechnology Group (FBG), Unruh added.

"The forage group also has need of weather information, so they are picking up the initial installation costs and the Ag Division will pay the annual maintenance costs," Unruh said.

Andy Hopkins, a forage grass breeder in the FBG, said weather conditions can vary quite a bit between PDF and the nearest Mesonet station (at Headquarters Farm), so there was a need for a Mesonet site at PDF.

"Weather data are important because they can help explain the results that we obtain from our research," Hopkins said, adding that the forage group has had several research projects at PDF in the past, with additional projects planned there in the future.

Mesonet technicians Leslie Cain and Kris Kesler set up the 10-meter-tall (approximately 30 feet) metal tower, data logger and other instruments that comprise a Mesonet site.

"This is an excellent site — it?s sitting up on a good hill that?s representative of the area, it?s an open place free of trees, and it?s not near a basin of water that could affect the humidity of the site," Cain said.

One measurement of particular interest to agricultural producers and researchers alike is soil temperature.

"The bare soil plot and the natural sod cover plot both measure temperatures at 5 and 10 centimeters deep. They demonstrate the temperature difference between bare and covered ground," Cain said.

To find out more about the Foundation?s three sites, go to http://okmesonet.ocs.ou.edu/siteinfo/. The site names are ARDM for the Headquarters Farm, BURN for the Red River farm, and NEWP for the station at PDF.

The weather data is also available on the Web. A monthly fee is charged to all users except to Oklahoma schools (public or private), universities and vocational-technical colleges, other in-state educational organizations, and state and local agencies.

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Photo: (293k jpeg)

Photo cutline: Julie Barrick, the Noble Foundation Agricultural Division?s data management assistant, explores the new Mesonet station at PDF. She is looking at the site?s ground-mounted rain gauge, which is surrounded by a metal wind screen.

The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, headquartered in Ardmore, Okla., is a non-profit organization conducting agricultural, forage biotechnological, and plant biology research; providing grants to numerous non-profit charitable, educational and health organizations; and assisting farmers and ranchers through educational and consultative agricultural programs.

To learn more, visit the Noble Foundation Web site at http://www.noble.org.

More news releases available at www.noble.org/Press_Release