Development of a Low-cost IoT-based Remote Sensing Device for Real-time Atmospheric Data Acquisition and Weather Monitoring

The knowledge of basic meteorological parameters is needful in terms of understanding the atmospheric behavior for a given period and consequently also for creating the weather forecast. In this study, an IOT based atmospheric weather data acquisition device is designed to ease and improve on the current measuring technique of acquiring Temperature, Pressure, and Relative Humidity measurement at different altitude levels. This design aims at solving the problem of inadequate atmospheric data by monitoring atmospheric weather conditions using sensors while the microcontroller processes the data collected and relays it to the user. This research was carried out at the University of Uyo, between September 2021 and January, 2023. Taking cognizance of the fact that weather forecasting is of great relevance in our world, this system has been designed using a BME280 module for the atmospheric parameters capturing, an ESP8266 as the microcontroller for Data processing, and a wireless module for processing and transfer of the data from the BME module, a NEO6M GPS module for longitude and latitude, a Li-ion cell to power the components and then a TP4056 circuit to recharge the Li-ion cell. A web server application known as Thingspeak.com was incorporated to help the user interact and access the acquired data to make for ease of understanding and real-time logging of the data obtained. The device successfully transmitted real-time weather data of the target atmospheric parameters captured by it to its users remotely. The results prove that this device is optimally effective and viable for capturing atmospheric parameters for real-time monitoring purposes. This work is relevant in the weather forecasting sector, agricultural sector, as well as to individuals who may have need of gathering information about the atmosphere for proactive planning of daily activities.