Columbia Weather Systems

While crews in the Gulf of Mexico are working to mitigate the damage caused by the recent Deepwater Horizon oil spill, scientists aboard the R/V Pelican research vessel are taking samples from the sea floor to analyze for changes in chemicals and marine organisms. ( HoumaToday.com ) The Magellan Weather Station by Columbia Weather Systems provides weather data aboard the R/V Pelican. With its internal compass and rugged metal construction, the Magellan is well-suited to mobile weather monitoring. The R/V Pelican is operated by LUMCON , the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium. Formed in 1979, LUMCON provides coastal laboratory facilities to Louisiana universities, and conducts research and educational programs in the marine sciences. (R/V Pelican photo courtesy of LUMCON)

Standard factory setup for the Magellan Weather Station provides wind direction alignment to True North. The internal compass reading is aligned to Magnetic North. At the factory, the declination angle is entered to offset wind direction output to True North based on the "Ship To" address. A new tutorial on our Resources page describes how to easily reset the declination angle. This would need to be done only if the weather station was installed in a significantly different geographic location, or if alignment to Magnetic North was desired. Click here for Magellan Weather Station Tutorial: Aligning Wind Direction to True North .