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Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory Project

20,000 Weather Stations in Africa

Monitoring the weather in Africa can be a challenge for climate scientists in Africa, where there are very few observation networks. More accurate data would help understand the African climate and the possibilities the continent offers for agriculture and other water-related activities.

The ambitious Trans-African Hydro-Meteorological Observatory (TAHMO) project  would be the solution! Design, build and operate no less than 20,000 inexpensive and robust weather stations across Africa. That is the aim of TAHMO, a joint initiative by TU Delft and Oregon State University.

But TAHMO is more

One of the key aspects of TAHMO is to make the initiative financially sustainable by developing and rolling out viable business development. At the same time, TAHMO tries to integrate science with education: the weather stations would be placed at schools and integrated in the educational programs. In this way, African children could be educated about their own climate as well as how to take measurements.

TAHMO is in the initial phase. The very first steps towards the development of cheap hydro-meteorological measurement stations are made:  a prototype of an acoustic disdrometer (rain gauge) was developed by TU Delft and tested in Tanzania. TAHMO also wants to include local design and technology and is currently involving African students, engineers and meteorologists in a competition to design innovative and cost effective weather sensors. TAHMO seeks to place weather stations across Africa.  It is important to catalog and make accessible all the currently collected climate data so that interested people can start their data analysis efforts, to avoid redundancy in TAHMO installations, and to prioritize the coming years of effort.

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Introduction

Watch the video below for a detailed explanation of the project. Check out the related courses offered at TU Delft below the video.

Introduction to the TAHMO project

Related TAHMO Courses

Find out which TU Delft OpenCourseWare courses relate to the TAHMO project.

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