Florida State University-Panama is now home to the first international installation of WeatherSTEM, a weather tracker that sends out hyperfocal alerts and tracks data at a specific location.
The WeatherSTEM station was installed earlier this month at the Panama campus with the help of WeatherSTEM CEO Ed Mansouri and FSU Vice President for Research Gary K. Ostrander. FSU-Panama is an international branch campus of the university in the Republic of Panama that serves more than 400 students.
The station went live Oct. 17.
“As we ramp up our research operations at our campus in Panama, the WeatherStem station will serve as a great jumping off point for projects related to weather, city planning, biology and more,” Ostrander said. “We’re honored that Ed Mansouri and WeatherSTEM chose FSU Panama for its first international installation.”
Mansouri, who has a master’s degree in meteorology from FSU, launched WeatherSTEM in 2015 and now has more than 400 stations installed at various sites across the country, including nine at FSU locations. Some of the sites include Doak Campbell Stadium, the Coastal and Marine Lab, the Ringling Museum and now the Panama campus.
“I think that our first international station is at a Florida State campus underscores the role that FSU has played in this,” Mansouri said. “We’re very proud of our partnership with the university.”
Each WeatherStem station has its own Twitter and Facebook feed so that the station can automatically supply data points regarding its location as well as images taken by the station’s camera. Long term or hourly forecasts, rainfall, wind speeds and weather warnings are some of the items that would be sent out over the feeds.
“This is something that we hope will interest the community there beyond the researchers or students at FSU-Panama,” Mansouri said. “It’s a great community-oriented tool.”
To check out the FSU-Panama WeatherSTEM, visit https://panama.weatherstem.com/fsupty.