Transcript glba2004_seamonster - talus-and

SouthEast Alaska MOnitoring Network for Scientific TElecommunication & Research:
SEAMONSTER—Application of distributed sensor arrays to Southeast Alaska Science
Matt Heavner1
1Dept.
Rob Fatland2
Edwin Knuth1
Natural Sciences, University of Alaska Southeast, [email protected], [email protected]; 2Vexcel Corporation, Boulder, CO, [email protected]
ABSTRACT
BENEFITS
WHAT IS SEAMONSTER?
Long Duration Data Acquisition
SEAMONSTER, the SouthEast Alaska Monitoring Network for
Scientific Telecommunication and Research, is a network being
developed to provide infrastructure to benefit research throughout
Southeast Alaska. The array will be composed of ‘bricks,’ which
are small Linux-based computers with digitizers and wireless
network communication capabilities. The first use of this network
is for bioacoustic monitoring of bats is Southeast Alaska for species
identification and measurements of population dynamics.
Additional projects during summer 2004 included experiments for
testing network link range, brick durability in adverse conditions,
power requirements, and brick capabilities. We conducted several
trial scientific measurements during the 2004 summer including
monitoring of Lemon Glacier and Columbia Glacier.
SEAMONSTER is a multi-tiered data acquisition network with communication capabilities and some
One
analysis capability at the sensors.
The multi-tiered nature of the network is intended to flexibly
SEAMONSTER is to facilitate long-duration (multi-year) observations
accommodate and take advantage of appropriate spatial scale sizes and communication technologies. For
of various biological and environmental parameters in a robust manner.
example, monitoring soil chemistry or snow accumulation of a single watershed may require closely spaced
Data Retrieval
sensors communicating over Blue Tooth links. The data would be fed to a backbone of longer distance
communication technologies. A hydrophone network monitoring Glacier Bay would have a much larger
spatial separation and may use 900 MHz modems.
Southeast Alaska in general, and Glacier Bay in particular, presents
a challenging environment for both data acquisition and wireless
communication. SEAMONSTER is an ambitious project to address
both of these issues to benefit the scientific community studying
Southeast Alaska and Glacier Bay.
This computer manages communication,
allows for data acquisition reconfiguration (e.g. adjust sampling rate or sensitivity), and provides a method
for setting alarms if the data does not pass defined validation tests (if the sensor reports a value out of a
This poster is to illustrate the capabilities of SEAMONSTER and
seek collaborators who will benefit from using the network to
enhance their ongoing monitoring of the Glacier Bay region.
Sensor separation can vary from 10 meters to 10
km or more. This schematic shows multiple
telemetry options: in situ investigator, overflying plane, satellite. SEAMONSTER will be
linked into the internet and provide data access
from the investigators “desk-top” as well.
the
main
motivations
behind
the
development
of
Long-duration observations are currently possible, but often involve
data loggers which much later be retrieved. If the data logger is lost
(e.g., a radio collar is lost or destroyed, or a remote site is “visited” by a
SEAMONSTER nodes include a small, low-power computer.
defined range, or if a data value is missing).
of
Next Generation
(Mini-BRICK, Geo-BRICK)
bear) then the entire data set is lost. SEAMONSTER provides real time
data flow from the sensors to overcome this problem.
Real-Time State of Health Information
BRICK Network Node
Capabilities
Existing Prototype
GPS
5 meter accuracy
1 cm differential
Digitizer
3000 Hz 4-channel (e.g. seismic)
250 Khz 4-channel (bioacoustics)
Data Storage
60 MB
1 GB solid state – 80 GB hard
drive
Flexible Spatial Scale
Power
8 watts: Commercial-off-the-shelf
components
½ watt: custom computer,
intelligent duty cycling
The multi-tier model of SEAMONSTER specifically provides data
Operating System
Linux, Open Source paradigm
Linux, Open Source paradigm
sampling over diverse spatial scales. For example, animal radio collar
Wireless Range
500 meters
10 km
Telemetry
Fixed station
Internet
tracking through SEAMONSTER would require receivers at a larger
Data rate
2 Mbps
TBD
Sample Timing Uncertainty
20 microseconds
5 microseconds
Interface options
USB / Ethernet / RS232 / Digital
I/O Pins / 802.11 wireless link /
Parallel port
Same as Existing, also Radio
reception (for radio collar),
Ultra-wideband wireless
Operating Temperature
Down to –60C in the laboratory
Down to –60C in the field
Cost
“Parts”
TBD
Real-time access to the data allows for both on-going data validation
and monitoring of the instrument state of health information.
spacing than required for an ongoing soil-chemistry monitoring project.
Existing Systems Can Be Included
Existing data acquisition systems can easily be incorporated to the
SEAMONSTER architecture. Please contact us if you are interested!
NETWORK ELEMENTS
The image at right shows a
brick (the silver box) with a
three-axis geophone (orange
cylinder) and an 802.11b
wireless bridge. This is the
prototype for the main nodes
of SEAMONSTER. The bricks
are designed to not only
acquire and forward data, but
also form an “intelligent”
network used for data storage.
If the main link to the internet goes down for some reason, the data
collected is distributed among the bricks for redundancy.
.
The photograph at left shows a
“waysmall” computer (the white
box with two black dots), a USB
wireless network adaptor, a USB
sound card, (with cable) and a
pocket knife to indicate scale.
The
400
MHz
computer
provides significant processing
power at very low power, and is
currently being evaluated for
use as a SEAMONSTER node
for a location with less
Other SEAMONSTER elements
acquisition requirements than a
can
include
radio
tracking
brick.
receivers (for relaying radio collar
data) or other existing sensors.
FUTURE PLANS
The wireless communication network is currently being established
in the Juneau area to allow easy access and testing. A robust network
will be in place by spring 2005, when we will be expanding the
network to encompass a greater part of Southeast Alaska. Glacier
Bay is a high priority for near-term establishment of the
SEAMONSTER network and a link to the internet for real-time data
transmission to investigators.
PROTOTYPE EXPERIMENTS
Photo courtesy Tad Pfeffer’s online Columbia Glacier archives.
Locations of bricks with geophones, Columbia Glacier
A large part of why glaciers—like many other environmental and
biological phenomena—remain so mysterious is the difficulty of
observations over long periods of time in fine detail. This is
primarily because doing so is prohibitively expensive. We are
taking advantage of rapidly-evolving technology to build better,
cheaper, robust, telemetry-equipped field equipment.
Results
May 2004: Successful air-to-ground telemetry data recovery using
a Cessna 172.
June 2004: Columbia Glacier seismic data acquisition: Main
trunk centerline serac, 4 geophones, 4 days, 100 samples per
second. Additionally several more Bricks were deployed at the
margin near the calving terminus. Recorded seismicity includes
teleseisms and local events; probable ice fracture events, possible
calving events.
June 2004: Lemon Creek Glacier (Juneau Icefield) seismic
acquisition, 4 geophones, 5 days, 100 samples per second. Seismic
record includes the June 28 magnitude 6.7 earthquake on Queen
Charlotte Island, 350 km distant from Brick sensor.
The Fish Creek Knob study site is located on the northeast ridge of
Mount Ben Stewart on Douglas Island 8 km southwest of Juneau,
Alaska (58° 16' 29" N and 134° 31' 48" W). The meteorological
tower is located in a flat 20 m by 40 m open area just below treeline
at 700 meters above sea level and 100 meters below the top of Eagle
Crest. The meteorological tower monitors wind speed and direction,
temperature, relative humidity, and net radiation. Additionally, a
sonic snow depth sensor allows observation of real time snow
accumulation during storms.
Last year we added a network link and real time data publishing on
the web. The three plots show representative data (snow depth and
temperature) and state-of-health information (battery voltage).
The Alaska Dept. of Fish & Game has funded a project to build bat detectors based upon the
concept of wirelessly networked small, lower-power computers for long term (approximately a year
or longer) monitoring of the bat population in Southeast Alaska. This project is currently underway
and is based on the brick technology and the SEAMONSTER network for data communication.
Brick Deployed on Lemon Glacier
We are currently developing the bricks to decrease power
requirements, further develop the data communication
and networking software, and add additional sensors. A
network of bricks is scheduled to be deployed in
Antarctica this fall.
Other sensors, such as video cameras, weather station
information, snow depth sensors, and radio collar animal
tracking information is being tested for integration into
the SEAMONSTER network.
The project has successfully recorded bats onto computers and is developing the at-the-sensor
software requried to descriminate the audio signal of bats against background noise (such as rain
hitting the microphone). The bat project is a prototype for the biological monitoring applications
possible with a SEAMONSTER network.
CONTACT US
We are very interested in working with researchers who
want to investigate the utility of the SEAMONSTER
network. Initially, we would work in parallel with
existing data retrieval techniques.
If you would like to find out more about SEAMONSTER
please contact us!