Why meteorology, and what exactly is it about? What interests me most about meteorology is the process of observing and recording the weather. It appeals to me because it involves a multitude of phenomena, colours and sensations that are transformed into data – usually numbers, symbols or words. 

One could say that this is a symbolic language used by meteorologists, observers and other specialists. Weather observations used to be (and perhaps still are) reflected in Lithuanian folk wisdom: ‘A rainy summer is foretold by ants settling on a mound. A sign of a cold summer is when the entrances to anthills face south, and birds’ nests are in a sheltered spot on the southern side.” Ants crawling into their burrows foretell impending rain. “A red dawn and sunset foretell an approaching cloudy or rainy weather.” I wanted to learn this language, decipher it and create my own alternative to it in audio form.


The weather – or, more precisely, its fluctuations and changes – is becoming an increasingly everyday element. These are not just phenomena caused by climate change, but even political events: such as when contraband balloons are blown into Vilnius Airport by an unfavourable wind direction, in an hostile force's attempt to paralyse air traffic. Or when ferries between Smiltynė and Klaipėda cannot sail due to adverse weather conditions. It is a factor when, whilst travelling, fog or excessively strong winds prevent a plane from landing at its intended airport. Due to too much or too little rainfall, farmers have a poor harvest that year…




The sonification of meteorological data – or the translation of data into sound – struck me as an opportunity to try to restore people’s sense of what lies behind the data, behind the numbers, the readings or the verbal descriptions of weather conditions.


Visiting weather stationsThe project began with visits to weather stations: I visited the stations in Kaunas, Šilutė, Trakų Vokė and Klaipėda. Most of the observation equipment is manufactured in Finland by Vaisala Oyj, named after the physicist and meteorologist Vilho Väisälä, who founded the company. Väisälä contributed to the invention of the radiosonde and, in December 1931, successfully launched the first Finnish radiosonde into the sky. 


Radiosondes are used to monitor various layers of the atmosphere: air temperature, dew point temperature, air humidity, atmospheric pressure, wind speed and direction. It was Chief Observer Vitas Laurynaitis who gave me the opportunity to witness this process in the Kaunas district; thanks to him, I decided to explore another aspect of meteorology when working with this theme after this project: the people working in this field. This became a particularly relevant topic for me, as from this year all meteorological stations in Lithuania have been automated, based on best international practice, and the need for human assistance has largely been eliminated.





There are many duplicate sensors at meteorological stations, such as those for temperature, wind speed and direction, and humidity; however, a few have always fascinated me: the one for cloud cover, which looks like a camera or a cut-off lamp, cloud cover, with a red laser beam reaching up into the sky at night, or pyranometers with round domes that monitor solar radiation. Stations are often located on the outskirts of towns, as they require sufficient space around them to ensure that the data is not affected by surrounding buildings or vehicles; the Kaunas meteorological station also monitors radiation levels in conjunction with the Lithuanian Radiation Centre, whilst air quality is monitored by equipment from the Environmental Protection Agency.


My (meteorological) stationWhen building my own station, I tried to select sensors that measure various parameters and compare their reliability. I encountered challenges with inaccurate readings from temperature sensors, the RS485 module’s reluctance to communicate, and the noise levels of some modules (generating random values). I chose the ESP32 microcontroller – I’d worked with it before – and also, as an idea for the future, to use Bluetooth or Wi-Fi for wireless communication.

Whilst testing my weather station, I realised that the data does not change very quickly, unless it is affected by gusts of wind, the sun comes out and hides behind a cloud, or I move the weather station myself. This also correlated with the LHMT open data, which is publicly updated every hour (more frequently within the internal system, but certainly not every second, as in my system).

Ultimately, my current system is limited to this data and its conversion into the following parameters:

• The sound is generated by the wind speed (intensity), which affects the sawtooth sound wave;
• At the same time, a second tone is produced, which is slightly modified by the difference between the perceived and actual temperatures;
• The rate of change in this value is determined by the change in wind speed;
• A third sound – the level of pink noise – is controlled by the amount of UV radiation;
• The sound then passes through a filter controlled by cloud cover and the hourly difference in precipitation;
• The amount of blue controls the perceived spatial reverberation (its size: whether it is small or large), referencing Rebecca Solnit’s essay ‘The Blue of Distance’ (in the book *A Field Guide to Getting Lost*);
• The amount of reverberation for wet and dry sound is controlled by the humidity level;
• And finally, the direction from which the sound comes (panning) is controlled by changes in wind direction.

This entire scheme exists within the PureData programme, whilst data transmission utilises the Arduino IDE and Python code, written based on examples found online and with the aid of artificial intelligence tools.

Future(,) hopes
I would like to continue developing the project in several directions: exploring ways to visualise data in real time (so far this exists only in paper, verbal and mental sketches) and the decline of the profession of weather observer.


Presentation at “Science Summer with RCL” at Vilnius University Center of Natural Sciences, picture taken by Vygintas Orlovas

Funding was provided by the Lithuanian Science Council (LMTLT), contract No. S-SV-26-30

https://lmt.lrv.lt/news/science-summer-with-rcl-young-researchers-presented-their-research-results-mgK/

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