3D-PAWS (3D-Printed Automatic Weather Station)

About this joint initiative

Many surface weather stations in developing countries and rural communities suffer from incorrect siting, poor maintenance and limited communications for real-time monitoring. The 3D-PAWS initiative offers a practical solution to this problem by facilitating local construction of reliable, low-cost surface weather stations and connecting them to observation networks with the goal of reducing weather-related risk. 3D-PAWS has already increased meteorological observations in Barbados, Curacao, Kenya, Uganda, Austria, Germany, the U.S. and Zambia. A detailed 3D-PAWS user manual is available online.

The 3D-PAWS initiative, a project of the International Capacity Development Program (ICDP), has been launched by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) and the US National Weather Service International Activities Office (NWS IAO), with support from the USAID Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA).

Current 3D-PAWS setup.

Current design of the 3D-PAWS. This configuration consists of a 3-cup anemometer, wind vane, tipping bucket rain gauge, temperature, relative humidity, light, and pressure sensors.

Screenshot from the 3D-PAWS user manual.