HR: 1340h
AN: V53B-1333    [Abstracts]
TI: Development of a Wireless Network of Temperature Sensors for Yellowstone National Park (USA)
AU: * Munday, D A
EM: cromom@ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Hutter, T
EM: hutter@soe.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Minolli, M
EM: mminolli@ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Obraczka, K
EM: katia@soe.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Manduchi, R
EM: manduchi@soe.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Petersen, S
EM: petersen@soe.ucsc.edu
AF: Department of Computer Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, United States
AU: Lowenstern, J B
EM: jlwnstrn@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, Mail Stop 910, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States
AU: Heasler, H
EM: Henry_Heasler@nps.gov
AF: Yellowstone National Park, P.O. Box 168, Mammoth, WY 82190, United States
AB: Temperature sensors deployed at Yellowstone clearly document that thermal features can vary in temperature on a variety of timescales and show regional correlations unrelated to meteorological variables such as air temperature. Yellowstone National Park (YNP) staff currently measures temperatures at over 40 thermal features and streams within the park, utilizing USGS stream gaging stations and portable data loggers deployed in geyser basins. The latter measure temperature every 1 to 15 minutes, and the data are physically downloaded after about 30 days. Installation of a wireless sensor network would: 1) save considerable time and effort in data retrieval, 2) minimize lost data due to equipment failure, and 3) provide a means to monitor thermal perturbations in near-real time. To meet this need, we developed a wireless sensor network capable of in-situ monitoring of air and water temperature. Temperature sensors are dispersed as nodes that communicate among themselves and through relays to a single base-station linked to the Internet. The small, weatherproof sensors operate unattended for over six months at temperatures as low as -40°C. Each uses an ultra-low-power Texas Instruments™ MSP430 microcontroller and an SD card as mass storage. They are powered by 15Ah, 3.6 v, inert Li-ion batteries and transmit data via 900MHz radio modules with a 1-km range. The initial prototype consists of 4 nodes, and is designed to scale with additional nodes for finer spatial resolution and broader coverage. Temperature measurements are asynchronous from node to node, with intervals as frequent as 30 seconds. Data are stored internally to withstand temporary communication failures; underlying intelligent software is capable of re-routing data through alternative nodes to the base station and a MySQL data archiving system. We also developed a Google-Maps-based, front-end that displays the data, recent trends and sensor locations. The system was tested in the Santa Cruz Mountains and will be used at Yellowstone National Park during Fall 2007.
DE: 8130 Heat generation and transport
DE: 8194 Instruments and techniques
DE: 8424 Hydrothermal systems (0450, 1034, 3017, 3616, 4832, 8135)
DE: 8494 Instruments and techniques
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting