January 11, 2011. Bolton, Massachusetts.
More than twenty years of real world lessons learned are being brought to bear in WeatherFlow’s Bolton office, as company engineers apply the final touches to WeatherFlow’s newly launched SCYLLA system. The system incorporates dozens of specific design characteristics that have been driven by WeatherFlow’s experience in maintaining and operating a proprietary weather observing network, with almost 400 stations and over 3000 station-years of successful operations.
With these hard-won lessons in mind, SCYLLA is being designed to operate in remote locations with little infrastructure support. Power is supplied by embedded solar panels, and the onboard battery capability ensures that observational data can be transmitted in real time indefinitely. The individual components are designed to be extremely rugged, with built-in redundancy, and requiring minimal maintenance.As part of WeatherFlow’s Wind Energy Mesonet, SCYLLA sensors (including wind, temperature, and pressure) will be placed on commercial towers at and above hub height, providing an unparalleled data stream at an extremely cost-effective price.
The first SCYLLA units are expected to be fielded in early 2011 in the first phase of the Wind Energy Mesonet, to take place in West Texas, and are also under consideration for similar projects in other locations.