PARENT SESSION
Organized Oral Session 38: Sensors and sensor networks in ecology
Organizer(s): SD Wullschleger, RB Jackson, and TE Dawson
Wednesday, August 10, 1:30 PM - 5:00 PM, Meeting Room 516 A, Level 5, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Mobile and static embedded networked sensing technology for environmental observatories.

Kaiser, William^*,1, ¹ Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, Los Angeles, California, USA

ABSTRACT- The first embedded networked sensing (ENS) systems are now deployed in natural ecosystem environments and are returning data with applications ranging from microclimate characterization to phenology. As ENS systems have been deployed, many technology challenges have been successfully addressed. Now, with the most recent advances, the components required for a multiple user and multiple task environmental observatory are being developed. Recently, the deployment of ENS devices have focused on a new class of problems requiring spatially and temporally intensive data sampling. These include the mapping of understory solar radiation and the autonomous acquisition of precise image sets for phenology monitoring in complex three-dimensional environments. To meet these new requirements, the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) has developed a new ENS technology, Networked Infomechanical Systems (NIMS) that introduces precisely mobile sensors and instruments that are added to the ENS network of static sensors. NIMS systems rely on infrastructure, in the form of aerial cables that are suspended in the environment between trees, terrain features, or towers. These extend the reach of static sensor nodes and permit high resolution mapping by nodes that may traverse horizontally and elevate vertically to explore an entire transect plane. NIMS nodes carry image sensors for phenology that may now adjust their position and viewing perspective in three-dimensional environments. NIMS platforms may also transport diverse instruments and also physical sampling systems for atmosphere and water. NIMS systems have been deployed in multiple environments including forest sites at the Wind River Canopy Crane Research Facility in Washington and at the San Jacinto James Reserve in Southern California. This presentation will describe investigations where NIMS nodes operate continuously and autonomously and also perform in situ statistical characterization and adaptive sampling of environmental variables. Finally, this presentation will also address the many future applications of remotely accessible observatories that link mobile and static sensors and instruments with investigators in the field.

Key words: networked, sensor, phenology, microclimate