An Extremely-low Cost Ground-Based Whole Sky Imager

Abstract

Ground-based Whole Sky Imagers (WSIs) are increasingly being used for various remote sensing applications. While the fundamental requirements of a WSI are to make it climate-proof with an ability to capture high resolution images, cost also plays a significant role for wider scale adoption. This paper proposes an extremely low-cost alternative to the existing WSIs. In the designed model, high resolution images are captured with auto adjusting shutter speeds based on the surrounding light intensity. Furthermore, a manual data backup option using a portable memory drive is implemented for remote locations with no internet access.