MiniMet Weather Station in the Orkneys

Orkney Islands, UK Fathoms Limited is a UK based company which specialises in coastal sub-sea services.

In a recent Alternative Energy Project they installed equipment in the hostile waters off the west coast of the Orkney Islands, which lie off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The Highlands and Islands Enterprise wanted to gather data for a Proposed Marine Energy Test Centre, critical to this was a profile of the wave energy and the meteorological conditions available at the proposed site.

In October 2001 Fathoms deployed a Datawell WaveRider Buoy to provide information on the direction, frequency and power of the waves. A Skye MiniMet weather station was also installed at a coastal site in the immediate vicinity of the buoy, carefully chosen to avoid the effects of the terrain and local features.

The MiniMet is downloaded via the GSM cellular network from Fathoms head office in Somerset, England. More than 5 months data has already been obtained without the need for a site visit. The installation site on Orkney mainland is shown above, with Hoy and Hoy Sound in the background. Since the photo was taken the MiniMet has been made tidy and fenced in to make it 'coo and ewe' proof (local Scottish animal life!).

Our thanks go to Fergus Taylor at fathoms Ltd. for this application and photograph.