The Electronics Staff plays an essential role in the mission of the National Weather Service Lake Charles forecast office.  Electronics Technicians are responsible for the calibration, modification, and emergency and routine maintenance of weather instruments and computer systems vital to accurately predicting the local weather.
 

One such instrument is the Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) which is commonly installed at airports.  The ASOS consists of many sensors, including wind speed and direction (anemometer), dew point and temperature (hygrothermometer), visibility, precipitation (rain gauge), pressure and sky condition.  The ASOS system is used for the official weather observations and climatic records at locations throughout the country.  National Weather Service Lake Charles maintains seven ASOS sites across southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, generally at major airport.  In addition, other ASOS sites are maintained by other local and national at smaller airports.

Our most detailed routine maintenance occurs on a quarterly basis.  During these “Quarterlies”, we clean and calibrate the entire ASOS sensor set.  For example, to calibrate our new rain gauge, a specified amount of water (500 mL) is added into the bucket, which should equate to 0.98 inches of rainfall.  Pouring water into a bucket may not sound very scientific, but many other precision measurement devices are used to diagnose and calibrate electronics equipment.
 

In the case of a failure in any component of a sensor, we utilize our knowledge of operations, system technical manuals, test equipment, and our personal troubleshooting abilities to return any defective system to operation.  For instance, a problem in the rain gauge may result from possible defects in a power supply, or the arithmetic function of the CPU.  Electronics Technicians maintain a comprehensive supply of spare parts, such as circuit boards, that always travel with us in our work vehicles.