Trimble announced a new feature for its RainWave precipitation monitoring solution for agriculture. As part of the Connected Farm solution, the new feature adds actual rainfall activity in 10-minute increments plus accumulated rainfall over a 24-hour period. With this comprehensive rainfall information, farmers can have a better understanding of the rainfall intensity, which can be used to make more informed decisions for irrigation and other farming operations.

For example, if RainWave information shows that a large amount of rain fell in a short period of time, much of that rainfall may have run off the field and be unavailable to the crop. In contrast, if the information shows a slow steady rain, farmers may assume that the rainfall has a better chance of being absorbed in the soil and can be available to the crop.

The RainWave solution enables farmers across the U.S. to set up virtual rain gauges by entering GPS coordinates for identified locations in order to receive a rainfall report for those locations. Since on-site rain gauges are not needed, farmers no longer need to monitor dispersed gauges or manually track precipitation. Farmers are able to obtain the RainWave information through their Connected Farm dashboard, a Web portal that provides one centralized location for farmers to view key information impacting their operations.