Abstract

As a part of initiating several ecological studies, four automated weather stations were installed in 1997 in the Peechi-Vazhani Wildlife Sanctuary, Chinnar wildlife Sanctuary, Silent Valley National Park and Eravikulam National Park. All the stations started operating in 1997 and the hourly weather parameters were collected from all the stations. These parameters include atmospheric temperature, relative humidity, total solar radiation, wind velocity, wind direction, rainfall and soil temperature at two depths (15 cm and 30 cm). The hourly data have been processed using a computer programme developed in KFRI. Using this, the hourly data have been condensed into daily averages, maximum and minimum and presented in this report. This has been furthercondensed to monthly averages, maximum and minimum. The wind velocity and direction have been given as Windrose diagrams. A further analysis of the data has been done using elevation of the four locations as a function. This showed a typical variation inan elevational gradient in the Western Ghats, taking into account the special features of a rain shadow location, namely, Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary. It is possible to do a number of further analyses using this data. Arrangements are also made to supply the hourly data on computer disks because of the extensive nature of the data