Weather Station
From Rise: The Vieneo Province
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Weather Station | |
| Price: | 500000 CR |
| Restrictions: | Unrestricted |
| Average Weight: | 226.8 kg |
| Average MTBF (maintained): | 50,000 (per sensor) hours |
| Source: | Purchasable from Lockheed Martin, option 5 |
A Weather Station is an inventory item installed at an airport control tower to provide local weather observations for METAR, ATIS and controller weather reports. Its seven components can fail independently. Runway Visual Range (RVR) remains a separate installation.
Purchase and installation
Purchase a Weather Station from Lockheed Martin using option 5, Weather Station (500000 CR). The packaged station weighs 500 lb (approximately 226.8 kg).
Carry the kit in vehicle cargo to the airfield and use the cargo installation action at the colony's completed control tower. Installation consumes the kit and supplies all seven working components. A replacement kit restores a damaged station; a fully working station does not accept another kit.
Components
| Component | Observation | Effect of failure |
|---|---|---|
| Anemometer | Wind direction, speed and gusts | Wind unavailable |
| Ceilometer | Cloud ceiling | Ceiling unavailable |
| Visibility sensor | Prevailing visibility and obscuration | Visibility unavailable; working RVR remains independent |
| Precipitation detector | Precipitation type and intensity | Precipitation information unavailable |
| Thermo-hygrometer | Temperature and dewpoint | Temperature and dewpoint unavailable |
| Lightning sensor | Thunderstorm detection | Thunderstorm information unavailable |
| Barometer | Pressure / altimeter | Altimeter unavailable |
The station's visibility sensor measures prevailing visibility. It does not install, replace or repair the separate runway RVR system. A Weather Station also does not replace Doppler Radar, which supplies regional precipitation coverage to the Player Portal.
Weather reporting
Local METAR reporting requires a control tower, an installed station, positive fuel reserves, a working Uplink, and a colony that is not shuttered. A fueled mothballed colony can still report.
Failed components produce missing-data groups rather than calm wind, clear weather or zero readings. Examples include /////MPS for missing wind, //// for prevailing visibility, ////// for ceiling, ///// for temperature/dewpoint, and Q//// for pressure. Precipitation-detector failure adds // and PWINO; lightning-sensor failure suppresses thunderstorm reporting and adds TSNO. The $ maintenance indicator appears when a station component has failed. An absent station produces a NIL observation.
ATIS and controller wind checks identify unavailable local information. When Parks Bi-State's VCPS METAR is available, a working VCPS sensor can supply reference information for a missing local field. The report names VCPS and its UTC observation time; the reference observation must be no more than 15 minutes old. Digital ATIS groups these values under VCPS HHmmZ REFERENCE.
VCPS observations describe conditions at VCPS. They do not fill in the destination's METAR or local RVR. Working local sensors take precedence. If VCPS also lacks the required observation, the information remains unavailable.
Maintenance
Each working component uses the same reliability and maintenance model as RVR. Failure checks occur while the colony has fuel and is not shuttered. Active operations with goods, sufficient working population and higher territory morale improve reliability.
The maintained MTBF shown in the inventory box is the maximum per component, not the time between failures anywhere in the seven-component station. The model ranges from 10,000 to 50,000 hours per component according to maintenance conditions. Failed components remain failed until the station is replaced. Equipment failure changes the observations available to pilots, not the actual weather.