The Department of Agriculture and Fisheries is assisting Queensland graziers to trial high-tech satellite rain gauges aimed at helping scientists plug gaps in rainfall data.
Minister for Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries, Mark Furner said rainfall data was an essential information tool for graziers.
“Rainfall, or the lack of it, is one of the fundamental measurements used in environmental management tools such as the FORAGE and pasture growth reports,” Mr Furner said.
He said FORAGE was an online system that generated property-level reports incorporating a range of seasonal conditions and other environmental data, while another Department-run system, AussieGRASS used spatial simulation to model pasture growth and seasonal conditions in rangelands.
“With Queensland being so large, rainfall data is often segmented over varying locations and time periods, leading to information gaps,” Mr Furner said.
“Already the rainfall data collected reinforces how variable Queensland’s climate can be with rainfall varying markedly over short distances.”
He said that in one day in December, one gauge recorded 106mm, while three kilometres away another gauge recorded 85mm and 14 kilometres away one recorded 8mm.
Minister for Science, Meaghan Scanlon said the trial involved a State-wide network of high-tech rain gauges that would measure rainfall and transmit the data via satellite to the grazier every 24 hours.
“We’re hopeful this trial will help fill in the spatial gaps that can occur with the existing Queensland-wide network of meteorological weather stations,” Ms Scanlon said.
“The data will also feed via satellite into SILO, the Queensland Government’s publicly available and real-time climate data tool,” she said.
