In the era of the 1970s, just about the UGM “Valley” or near the deer park, UGM had a meteorology station run by the Faculty of Agriculture. In that period, the station became a research and students learning place from various campuses in Yogyakarta since the equipment there was many, from the anemometer (wind speed measuring instrument), solarimeter (solar radiation length measuring instrument), aktinograf (solar radiation intensity measuring instrument) to ombograf and evaporation pan.
"In the past, the UGM agroclimatology or meteorology station was the most equipped climate stations besides Adisucipto Airport," said the Agricultural Meteorology station manager, Ir. Rahmad Gunadi, M. Si, on Tuesday (13/7). He said from this meteorology station, UGM always routinely sent various data about climate, weather, rainfall, temperature, and humidity to the Bureau of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics. However, in 1995 when the station was moved near the current UGM campus mosque, then slowly its function reduced, moreover after it was moved again to the east end of the “Valley”. "The location which fits the coordinate is indeed near the deer park," he said.
Gunadi said that when it was still located near the deer park, every day thousands of students came to do research and reading devices. They were UGM students from Faculty of Agriculture, Geography, Biology, Forestry as well as student from outside UGM. Not only UGM students but also from other campuses in Yogyakarta were used to come there,” Gunadi added. Similarly with Gunadi, laboratory assistant who was also a weather observer of meteorology station of Faculty of Agriculture, Buntoro, S.E, said that after the station location was moved to the east side, several measuring instruments such as anemometer, solarimeter, and aktinograf had gone missing. These tools were quite expensive and the replacement were hard to find. "The material is made from brass. Nowadays, it’s hard to find and probably no longer produced," said Buntoro.
What currently remains is only the evaporation pan and the 10 m anemometer. Some others had been secured and moved to the Faculty of Agriculture. This kind manual (conventional) measuring instrument should be retained because it is actually quite accurate. "Although currently we already have Automatic Weather Station (AWS), which is used to detect and predict weather conditions, a manual system that we have is as good and accurate,' said Buntoro.
Along with the loss of weather and climate measuring instruments, Gunadi as well as Buntoro agreed that the station location should be returned to the earlier coordinate which is near the deer park and, in terms of security, it will be more secured. Students can also study and find the weather data more easily, while the Bureau of Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics will still get a regular data supply from UGM. "Frankly, activities continue to decrease, even stagnant. In the past, we were the one who sent data to Semarang before they were processed and distributed to other stations. Now it is us who gets the monthly report," concluded Buntoro.