Air Temperature and Moisture in RWS10

Road weather stations are usually located in such a way that the conditions for meteorological measurement are not optimal, and the measurement is often made at a high level above ground. Reasonable accuracy and stability are therefore priorities. In the Teconer’s Road Weather Station RWS10, the humidity measurement is always duplicated to detect any sensor failures. The common cause of failure in measuring moisture is aggressive air pollution due to traffic. The air temperature Tair is not measured by one sensor, but is calculated from the measurements of several sensors, as is the dew point Tdew. Such a procedure does not require a specific radiation shield or other structures to perform Tair, RH, and Tdew measurements. When the measurement of the road surface temperature Tsurf and atmospheric pressure P can also be easily placed in the same structure, a good solution in terms of cost and installation is obtained.
In road weather stations the most important air related measurement is the dew point temperature. In humid weather the dew point temperature and the road surface temperature together tell a lot about the road condition and its development. The technical knowledge and measurement experience of Teconer’s developers has been used to the dew point measurement in the RWS10. Consequently, special efforts have been made to optimize operation in humid air.

In road weather stations the most important air related measurement is the dew point temperature. In humid weather the dew point temperature and the road surface temperature together tell a lot about the road condition and its development.

The following figures show comparison of Tdew to a reference dew point measurement (KastP) and to Tsurf, as well as Tair to a reference air temperature (Ilma).

Fig. 1. Comparison of dew point measurement Tdew to a reference measurement (KasP). The data is taken from a day half a year after installation.
Fig. 2. Comparison of Tsurf and Tdew. When Tsurf is below freezing point, the moisture in air will condense into frost on the road.
Fig. 3. Comparison of Tair to a reference measurement of air temperature (Ilma). The data is taken from a day, when average wind speed was less than 2 m/s.
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