Many researchers belonging to the following departments: Botany, Zoology, Geography, Architecture and Geology, as well as from the Faculties of Agriculture and Technology have expressed great need for both short- and long-term meteorological data as support for their projects.
The atmospheric physics research group (APRG) at the Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, OAU, in 1994 has acquired electronically-operated meteorological devices such as, pulse-output cup anemometers, potentiometer wind vane, platinum resistance wire (PT 100 ) air temperature sensors and digital datalogging equipment (measurement and control module). Using these devices, a complete year of meteorological observations (wind speed at 5 heights, wind direction, air temperature at 4 heights and net radiation) was made at a study site in Osu in 1995.
Beyond this initial effort, the competency of APRG grew considerably to handle extensive designs for different meteorological measurement configurations. Moreover, parameters such as, atmospheric surface layer turbulence, solar and atmospheric radiation, soil temperature and heat flux are being acquired. Several key field experiments successfully have been executed at many sites in OAU campus spanning a period of nearly 20 years. A recent meteorological station is the one located besides the Department of Physics building in the year 2009.
To date, researchers from OAU have used the meteorological data records. Colleagues from University of Ibadan and the Federal University of Technology, Akure consulted with APRG for expertise to set up micrometeorological stations in their respective institutions in 2006. The atmospheric physics research group, therefore has the capacity and experience to undertake design, installation of the devices and operation of digital meteorological sensors covering wide applications that can be jointly maintained for the university research community. What is of particular advantage is in-house knowledge to design, modify and develop meteorological measurement configurations that can be expanded to accommodate the diverse needs of the university academic community.
Since October 2009, weekly data for key meteorological parameters (as weather outlook) have been published on the University website hosted by the Information and Technology Communications Unit (INTECU). Such meteorological database is provided freely for the benefit of entire university research community. Hence the aim is to establish a meteorological research station, OAU-Met Station (as a campus-wide initiative), with the sole aim of making the data from the facility available to community of researchers in the University.