Decision Support Systems in Agriculture: Administration of Meteorological Data, Use of Geographic Information Systems(GIS) and Validation Methods in Crop Protection Warning Service - Efficient Decision Support Systems: Practice and Challenges from Current to Future - page 333

a. general configurations b. configuration of date/time format

c. configuration of the sensors format

Fig. 1. AgmedaWin: Definition of an import profile
When defining a new import profile it first has to get a profile name. Then some general
configurations can be made by for example entering the number of caption lines and the
interval of measurements used in the import file. In AgmedaWin only hourly values are
stored. So if the interval of measurements is smaller than 60 minutes the values are
automatically aggregated to hourly values before they are imported. Next it is possible to
define a valid line. In the example in fig. 1 only values of lines which have a “;” at position
10 will be imported. Also it has to be defined if the sensor values in the import file are
arranged in fixed columns or if they are separated by a delimiter (fig. 1.a).
The positions and the lengths of the date and time items as year, month, day, hour and
minute have to be entered. It also has to be selected whether in the import file the hours are
marked from 00:00-23:00 or from 01:00-24:00 (fig. 1.b).
Also the sensors stored in the import file and the positions and lengths of the sensor values
must be entered. In the example in fig. 1.c the value of relative humidity would be expected
in column 9 with a length of 5. The format of null values can be entered. Also simple
calculations can be done with the values and conditions can be checked before the values are
imported (fig. 1.c). After an import profile is defined it is saved and then assigned to a
weather station. Only if an import profile is assigned to a weather station data for this
station can be imported.

2.2 Gap filling
Decision support systems need complete meteorological data as input. Therefore it is very
important to make sure that gaps in the data are filled. In AgmedaWin this can be done in
different ways.
Gaps can be filled manually by the weather administrator by simply entering or changing
the values.