Wireless Monitoring Network Created in Sierra Nevada

Experts at the University of California in Merced (UCM) and the University of California in Berkeley (UCB) announce the creation of a prototype wireless monitoring installation in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The grid keeps an eye on the amount of snow and ice available at these locations.

Water is the most precious resource in California, but allotting it efficiently has always been a challenge. Estimates of the amounts of water needed and available are sometimes off by as much as 20 to 30 percent, scientists say.

As such, surveying the mountains is becoming increasingly important. More than 60 percent of all the water used in California comes from Sierra Nevada snowmelt. The state's agriculture is currently valued at about $35 billion.

Improve ecological measurement and hydrologic forecasting could therefore ensure that no damage comes to the crops, such as for example from floods or droughts. The new monitoring grid was established for this very purpose.

Until now, courageous investigators would sky down the slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and conduct measurements on the spot, by driving pole into the snow. At this point, data collected wirelessly by the new network are combined with information provided by satellites.

The project was put into motion by experts at the UCM Sierra Nevada Research Institute, who used sensors provided by their UCB colleagues. The prototype grid is installed over a 2.5-square kilometer site in the mountains.

Using this asset, experts hope to become able to estimate the amount of water available for any given season with a high degree of accuracy. As global warming begins to make its effects felt more and more, this will become critically important.

In addition to water monitoring, the work will also help scientists understand large-scale factors influencing the ices, such as solar radiation, soil temperature, snow depth, plant respiration, atmospheric gases and so on.

“What we are deploying right now in this small watershed lays the foundation for new information systems to greatly improve ecological measurement and hydrologic forecasting,” Roger Bales says.

“At the same time, it is advancing sensor technology and provides insights about basic Earth-atmosphere interactions,” concludes the expert, a UCM professor of engineering and the director of the Sierra Nevada Research Institute.