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Humanitarian/
Specialized fields/
Drought and food security monitoringDrought seen early enough to act.
Where people depend on rain-fed crops and pasture, drought becomes hunger within months. Rainfall, soil moisture and water point levels from the ground, combined with satellite indices, show a drought early enough for anticipatory action, cash and food to arrive before a crisis.
Plan a deploymentHow it worksStation Builder- Industry
- Humanitarian
- Measurements
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- Sources cited
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Humanitarian · Drought and food security monitoring
From drought to hunger
Where people live from rain-fed crops and pasture, a failed rainy season becomes hunger within months. Food security analysts classify crises from rainfall, crops, pasture, markets and nutrition, but ground stations are scarce exactly where they matter. Early ground evidence lets cash and food arrive before the crisis peaks.
What is measured
Rain, soil and water points
Rain gauges across farming and pastoral zones record every shower. Soil moisture probes at representative fields and rangeland show whether rain reached the roots, and level sensors in boreholes, wells and pans show water points falling along the herding routes that pastoralists depend on.
- Instruments
- Rain gauges · Soil moisture probes · Water point levels
The base node
Anomalies, computed locally
The node checks every value against climatology and neighbouring stations, computes rainfall and soil moisture anomalies for its zone, flags dry spells and water points falling faster than usual, and sends a compact daily report that costs little to transmit.
Radio and links
Daily, at low cost
Where coverage exists, daily reports travel over cellular for very little. Stations in remote pastoral zones report by satellite. Reports join the meteorological and agriculture services’ systems and sit next to satellite indices in the analysts’ tools, so ground and space evidence are read together.
- Links
- Public cellular · Satellite
How it works
From a dry spell to early cash
Three weeks into the rainy season, gauges across a pastoral zone report almost nothing, soil moisture stays at its dry-season level and two water points fall fast. The anomaly crosses the trigger in the agency’s early action plan, and cash transfers and water trucking start a month before the usual response.
From order to operation · Order
Scope with the analysts
The scope reads the livelihood zones, the analysis calendar, existing stations and the satellite products analysts use, and the early action plans that need triggers. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the station plan, indicator design, training and a price per station and per year.
Plan a deploymentFrom order to operation · Survey
Survey zones, not points
Crews visit each zone with local extension and water staff: representative fields and rangeland, water points on herding routes, exposure for rain gauges, community custodians for each station, coverage and security. Findings are recorded with photographs and coordinates. Every finding is kept with the site record for the crews who follow.
From order to operation · Permits
Land and communities
Land owners and community leaders agree to each station and name a custodian. Water point owners approve level sensors. The national meteorological and agriculture services agree how the data join their systems. Every agreement is kept with the station record.
From order to operation · Build
Build and calibrate
Rain gauges and soil probes are calibrated, stations are assembled with hubs, nodes, power and backhaul, enrolled with their identities and run together before shipping. Each kit is labelled for its zone and site. Test results travel with the kit to the site.
Open the Station BuilderFrom order to operation · Install
Install with custodians
Crews and custodians set rain gauges at standard heights, install soil probes at representative depths, fit level sensors in water points, raise poles and solar panels, and photograph each part. Custodians learn to clean and check the station. The site record is updated before the crew leaves.
From order to operation · Commission
Commission against the record
Each node proves its identity. Rain is checked with a manual gauge, soil moisture with samples, water levels with manual dips, and reports are compared with the satellite products analysts use. The station joins the analysis when its first weeks pass the checks.
From order to operation · Operate
Feed early action
Analysts see rainfall, soil moisture and water points for every zone, next to satellite indices. When a season fails, anomalies cross the triggers agreed in early action plans, and cash, fodder and water trucking start before the crisis peaks. Reports for owners and funders come from the same record.
From order to operation · Maintain
Keep the network honest
Custodians clean gauges and report problems, crews visit each season to check sensors, software updates arrive remotely, and stations are compared with neighbours and satellite estimates to catch drift. Every change is kept with the station record. Spares and procedures travel with the crews.
Book field servicesData products
For analysts and responders
Food security analysts receive rainfall and soil moisture anomalies; pastoral and water teams receive water point levels; governments and agencies receive early action trigger reports; meteorological and remote sensing services receive ground truth for satellite products, each tied to zone, station and date.
See the data productsEvidence
Indicators analysts already use
Indicators follow the international drought handbook and feed the food security phase classification, soil moisture and precipitation are reported as essential climate variables, and rain is gauged to the instrument guide. Every reading, anomaly and trigger report is kept with its station and zone.
- Drawn against
- IPC Technical Manual Version 3.1 · WMO-No. 1173 · GCOS-244 · WMO-No. 8
What you get
Agricultural field observatories
Soil moisture profiles, micro-weather and evapotranspiration with irrigation thresholds per field. Delivered as managed service and data licence, for growers, agribusiness, irrigation districts, crop insurers. Scale: Farm to region. Service levels are written as numbers you can measure on your own dashboard.
Talk to salesNext step
Plan drought and food security monitoring with us
Tell us the site, the measurements and the rules it answers to. We reply with a survey proposal, a design and a scope for drought and food security monitoring. An engineer replies with a survey proposal and a scope, and the plan grows from one site to the network you need, at your pace.
Plan a deploymentOpen the Station BuilderOpen the Studio
01The place and its hazards
Where it runs, and what can go wrong.
Operating contextFood security analysts classify crises with an international phase classification that weighs rainfall, crop and pasture conditions alongside nutrition and markets. Drought is assessed with the indicators and indices of the international handbook, and soil moisture and precipitation are essential climate variables. Ground stations are scarce exactly where these assessments matter most.
Hazards
- Rainy seasons that start late or fail
- Pasture and crops failing before anyone measures it
- Water points drying up along herding routes
- Satellite estimates with no ground stations to check them
- Warnings that arrive after harvests have failed
02What must be measured
What, where, how often, and under which rules.
Each measurement names where it is taken, how often, and the public standard or regulation behind it. Numbers in the sources column open the cited source below.
| Measurement | Where | Cadence | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rainfall | Gauges across farming and pastoral zones | Daily totals, hourly logging | 12 |
| Soil moisture | Probes at representative fields and rangeland | Daily, with hourly logging | 32 |
| Water point levels | Boreholes, wells and pans on herding routes | Daily, faster when falling | 2 |
| Drought and food security indicators | Computed for each livelihood zone | Every ten days and monthly | 42 |
03The observation stack
From one base unit to a network.
The same blocks at every scale: instruments and a base node, a site with its radio, a fleet run as one, and a network federated on the open protocol.
- 01
Base unit
A station: a rain gauge and soil moisture probes, or a water point level sensor, on a sensor hub with a small node.
Build a station → - 02
Site
A zone: stations across a livelihood zone, reporting to the national system with solar power.
Plan a site → - 03
Fleet
Every zone of a country or region run as one network, feeding the national and regional analysis.
Managed offers → - 04
Network
Analysts, governments and agencies share ground data and indicators through open standards.
The open protocol →
- 01Compact weather station
- 02Soil probe
- 03Water level gauge
- 04Sensor and instrument gateway
- 05Micro node (Nano)
- 06Cellular modem/router
- 07LEO flat-panel terminal
- 08Solar array
- 09Pole
Radio and links
Public cellular
Where coverage exists, daily reports travel over cellular at very low cost.
Radio and links
Satellite
Stations in remote pastoral zones report by satellite.
Edge computeThe node checks values against climatology and neighbours, computes rainfall and soil moisture anomalies for its zone, flags dry spells and falling water points, and sends compact daily reports.
PowerSolar panels and batteries power every station; reporting once a day keeps power needs small.
04How it works
From the instrument to the product.
One observation’s path, tier by tier, with the interface on every link and a bill of materials below; then how the one node grows to a site, a fleet and federated networks.
Drought and food security monitoring: data path
– of 07
01 Instruments Measurement with sensor identity andcalibration 02 Gateway 03 Node – Wrap in an observation envelope with timequality– Measure quality and uncertainty, attachquality flags– Buffer locally (store-and-forward when thelink drops) 04 Backhaul Commit with transactional outbox andpublish, delivered at least once 05 Site Consumer inbox deduplicates and applieseach record once into governed data 06 Data store Governed product through API, map orexport, correction-aware 07 Products OGC SensorThings APIWMO WIS 2.0HXL 08 Power and structure Supplies 12 V DC, 48 V DC to the fieldequipment 01 Compact weather station SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 02 Soil probe SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 03 Water level gauge SDI-12 · RS-485 · Ethernet 04 Sensor and instrument gateway SDI-12 · RS-485 · Analogue I/O ·Ethernet · USB 05 Micro node (Nano) Ethernet · USB · Analogue I/O ·RS-485 · CAN 06 Cellular modem/router Ethernet · USB · RS-232 07 LEO flat-panel terminal Ethernet Site MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B Governed data store Versioned, correction-aware Rainfall and soil moisture anomalies Water point levels Early action trigger reports Ground truth for satellite products 08 Solar array RS-485 09 Pole SDI-12 · SDI-12 SDI-12 · SDI-12 SDI-12 · SDI-12 Ethernet · MQTT 5 Ethernet Ethernet LTE/NR Satellite IP| Item | Equipment | Data ports | Protocols | Power in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Compact weather stationAll-in-one or compact station for temperature, humidity, pressure, wind and rain at a site. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 02 | Soil probeProbe for volumetric soil moisture, temperature and conductivity at one or more depths. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 03 | Water level gaugeRadar, pressure or float gauge for river, lake, reservoir or tide level. | SDI-12RS-485Ethernet | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API | 12 V DC |
| 04 | Sensor and instrument gatewayData logger and gateway that reads instruments on SDI-12, RS-485, analogue and Ethernet ports and publishes observations with calibration and time. | SDI-12RS-485Analogue I/OEthernetUSB | SDI-12, Modbus, MQTT 5, OGC SensorThings API, OGC API Connected Systems, OMA LwM2M | 12 V DC, PoE |
| 05 | Micro node (Nano)Single-board or module-class node for sensor sites, gateways and low-power deployments. | EthernetUSBAnalogue I/ORS-485CAN | MQTT 5, OMA LwM2M, CoAP | PoE, 12 V DC, USB PD |
| 06 | Cellular modem/routerLTE or NR modem or router that uses a public carrier or private network as backhaul. | EthernetUSBRS-232 | 3GPP E-UTRA air interface, 3GPP NR air interface, OMA LwM2M | 12 V DC, PoE |
| 07 | LEO flat-panel terminalElectronically steered flat-panel user terminal for low-Earth-orbit broadband constellations. | Ethernet | — | PoE, 48 V DC, AC mains |
| 08 | Solar arrayPV modules with charge controller sized to the site’s load and climate. | RS-485 | Modbus | — |
| 09 | PoleUtility, street or dedicated pole with clamp positions. | — | — | — |
How it scales
01 Instruments Arbitrary qualified sensors and instruments whosemeasurements are ingested with calibration, units,geometry, time, custody and uncertainty. ×n 02 Node The minimum useful deployable unit: server, ruggedappliance, radio node, sensor gateway, satelliteterminal, AI, scientific, vehicle or virtual node. Node Node agent 03 Site The minimum independently operable localgovernance and failure domain: one or more nodesplus local network, identity, policy, evidence,storage, products and operator surfaces.SITE
Node Node Node ×n 04 Cluster An optional scale or specialisation domain forscheduling, shared storage, accelerators or datalocality.CLUSTER
×n 05 Fleet Coordinates plans, acknowledgements,convergence evidence, update campaigns andcorrection propagation across nodes and sites.FLEET
Fleet controller ×n 06 Federation An exchange of products, capabilities, events orwork across approved, independently administeredtrust domains, using explicit trust, policy,data-locality, version and correction contracts.TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
TRUST DOMAIN
×n Verifier Applications Data in the field Telemetry Control Data upstream Control Data upstream Control Exchange Evidence Events Exchange- Data in the field
- MQTT 5 with Sparkplug B; connectors for LoRaWAN, OPC UA and instrument buses.
- Telemetry
- OpenTelemetry OTLP.
- Control
- TLS 1.3 with mutual authentication; protobuf messages over gRPC or HTTP/2.
- Data upstream
- At-least-once publication with repeat-safe keys over the control channel or NATS JetStream; QUIC MAY be used on lossy links.
- Evidence
- DSSE-signed in-toto statements; SLSA provenance; SCITT transparency receipts.
- Events
- Event envelopes mapped to CloudEvents 1.0; channels described in AsyncAPI 3.
- Exchange
- OpenAPI 3.1; the OGC API family; SensorThings; STAC; WIS 2.0.
05From order to operation
Every step, from the first call to a running site.
The same crew and the same record carry the work from scope to maintenance.
- 01 Order
Scope with the analysts
The scope reads the livelihood zones, the analysis calendar, existing stations and the satellite products analysts use, and the early action plans that need triggers. Nexus Observatory Inc. returns the station plan, indicator design, training and a price per station and per year. 42
- 02 Survey
Survey zones, not points
Crews visit each zone with local extension and water staff: representative fields and rangeland, water points on herding routes, exposure for rain gauges, community custodians for each station, coverage and security. Findings are recorded with photographs and coordinates. Every finding is kept with the site record for the crews who follow. 1
- 03 Permits
Land and communities
Land owners and community leaders agree to each station and name a custodian. Water point owners approve level sensors. The national meteorological and agriculture services agree how the data join their systems. Every agreement is kept with the station record.
- 04 Build
Build and calibrate
Rain gauges and soil probes are calibrated, stations are assembled with hubs, nodes, power and backhaul, enrolled with their identities and run together before shipping. Each kit is labelled for its zone and site. Test results travel with the kit to the site.
- 05 Install
Install with custodians
Crews and custodians set rain gauges at standard heights, install soil probes at representative depths, fit level sensors in water points, raise poles and solar panels, and photograph each part. Custodians learn to clean and check the station. The site record is updated before the crew leaves. 1
- 06 Commission
Commission against the record
Each node proves its identity. Rain is checked with a manual gauge, soil moisture with samples, water levels with manual dips, and reports are compared with the satellite products analysts use. The station joins the analysis when its first weeks pass the checks. 3
- 07 Operate
Feed early action
Analysts see rainfall, soil moisture and water points for every zone, next to satellite indices. When a season fails, anomalies cross the triggers agreed in early action plans, and cash, fodder and water trucking start before the crisis peaks. Reports for owners and funders come from the same record. 4
- 08 Maintain
Keep the network honest
Custodians clean gauges and report problems, crews visit each season to check sensors, software updates arrive remotely, and stations are compared with neighbours and satellite estimates to catch drift. Every change is kept with the station record. Spares and procedures travel with the crews.
06Data products and integration
What it delivers, to whom, and into which systems.
Data products
- Rainfall and soil moisture anomaliesFood security analysts
- Water point levelsPastoral and water teams
- Early action trigger reportsGovernments and agencies
- Ground truth for satellite productsMeteorological and remote sensing services
Integration
- National systemsData join the meteorological and agriculture services’ own systems.
- Food security analysisIndicators feed the analysis teams’ tools for each livelihood zone.
- Early action plansTrigger reports go to the agencies that hold the plans.
Exchanged through OGC SensorThings API, WMO WIS 2.0, HXL.
07Questions buyers ask
Before you scope it.
Why ground stations if we have satellites?
Ground data check and correct satellite estimates where they are weakest.
Who looks after the stations?
Local custodians, with seasonal crew visits.
Can it trigger anticipatory action?
It supplies the indicators; the triggers are set in the agencies’ plans.
Does it work offline?
Stations store data and send when a link returns.
08Resources
The sources behind this page.
Public standards, regulations and guidance, cited where they apply. Each applies only where its jurisdiction or scope does.
- 1WMO-No. 8: Guide to Instruments and Methods of ObservationWorld Meteorological Organization
- 2WMO-No. 1173: Handbook of Drought Indicators and IndicesWorld Meteorological Organization and Global Water Partnership · 2016
- 3GCOS-244: The 2022 GCOS Implementation PlanGlobal Climate Observing System · 2022
- 4IPC Technical Manual Version 3.1Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Global Partnership · 2021
09Related
Use cases and solutions.
Use caseAgromet cooperative network
Compact weather stations and soil probes on farms, feeding irrigation, frost and disease models for a cooperative or an insurer.The full use case →Use caseGBON gap-filler station
A WMO-grade surface station, optional upper-air ground station and a WIS 2.0 node, built to report reliably where the global basic observing network has gaps.The full use case →SolutionAgricultural field observatories
Soil moisture profiles, micro-weather and evapotranspiration with irrigation thresholds per field.Solutions for humanitarian →SolutionEarth observation tasking, processing and change detection
SAR and optical acquisition planning, analysis-ready processing and change detection checked against field truth, delivered as STAC and COG.Solutions for humanitarian →SolutionSensing as a Service
Observation networks designed, installed, operated and maintained for a monthly fee: weather, hydromet, air, seismic and environmental stations, with data delivered under a licence.Solutions for humanitarian →10Humanitarian: specialized fields
Other fields of this industry.
Specialized fieldDisplacement sites and camps
Weather, heat, flood, water supply and storage at camps and displacement sites, so site managers protect people from the hazards of the place and keep water flowing.The full field →Specialized fieldField connectivity for responders
Satellite and cellular connectivity, Wi-Fi and mesh for field offices, warehouses and responders, deployed in days, secured and run for the length of the operation.The full field →Specialized fieldVaccine and medicine cold chain
Temperature, power and door monitoring for vaccine refrigerators at clinics and depots, so health workers see a failing fridge before vaccines are spoiled.The full field →Bring us the site.
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