Grad students, professors team up to tackle remote climate research with mules, tree harnesses and new sensor network
Jill Maxwell | Courtesy
Paul Robinson and Derek Neal from the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences at the University of Idaho place multi-elevation arrays of sensors in a tree at the remote UI Taylor Wilderness Research Station.
A multi-elevation array of sensors at the remote University of Idaho Taylor Wilderness Research Station may help predict human effects on climate change.
Professor Katy Kavanagh, with the Department of Forest, Rangeland and Fire Sciences, said she wanted to launch the Mountainous Ecosystem Sensor Array project in a location free from “heat islands,” motor exhaust and other human influences.
“The wilderness area fits that bill very well,” she said.
Derek Neal, electrical engineering graduate student working on MESA for his thesis, said the project is complex. MESA will measure myriad environmental factors such as carbon dioxide levels, temperature, humidity, soil moisture, radiation, snow depth and others. The natural development of such elements in nature will provide controls against which humanity’s environmental influences can be measured. He said the primary use for the MESA research will be to inform policymakers about climate change.
“(Taylor) can act as a benchmark against human dominated systems,” Neal said.
Neal said most similar sensor networks are located in broad regions with scant shifts in elevation. These fail to factor in the effects of mountains, forest canopies and other elements in climate measurements, he said, and its capability to gath`er such data makes the MESA project unique.
“There are a bunch of observatories around the country, and we’re one of the most remote,” he said.
Kavanagh said one of the challenges in launching MESA was the 1800-feet disparity in elevation across the three sensor stations, and it is a several-hour hike to the highest one. The dramatic deviation is helpful for the research, she said, because even small changes in elevation can yield large climate differences, and she wanted to seize that variability.
Doug Frome, fellow thesis student with Neal, said another obstacle involved the gear. The team spent three months trying to figure the best way to mount the sensor equipment in the trees, he said, fighting 100-feet heights and harnesses, the strength of the pipe material and other factors. All of the equipment had to be packed in, he said, but that challenge was made a little easier with the inclusion of a mule team. Frome said a generous group of donors visiting Taylor for a fundraiser had ridden in on mules and let the team use the animals.
“It was kind of a short-notice deal, but I’m really glad it worked out,” Frome said.
He said the MESA network has been operational since last fall, and the winter has created more challenges for the team to address in the form of power requirements. The sensor network is run entirely on solar and wind energy, he said, and in the dark winter months the array requires two or three times the number of usual solar panels to function.
“It’s been difficult, but we’re making progress,” Frome said.
MESA has one advantage against the elements in its “self-healing” mesh network setup, Neal said. Groups of sensors are attached to particular power nodes, which are basically outfitted with their own network routers, he said. If one power node shuts down and cuts off its sensors from the system, the network can adapt an alternate path of communication to ensure the sensors outside that node can still communicate.
Neal said he was eager to help with the MESA project because he likes the renewable energy issues it involves, but it wasn’t all business.
“I also love being outside, so it was perfect,” he said.
Matt Maw can be reached at [email protected]