Automatic Science

Science can be a painstaking, even boring process. Enter automation.

These towers are used to measure the carbon dioxide and water vapor amounts in an ecosystem to understand the ecosystem's carbon cycle at the Sky Oaks Field Station, run by San Diego State University's Field Stations Program

The equipment seen in the left hand side of the image (starting from left to right; 3-D sonic anemometer and infrared gas analyzer) are part of an eddy co-variance tower operated by Walt Oechel of GCRG.

Three of these towers are located at a remote field station run by Due to the complexity of these systems, in the past they have required frequent check-ups by graduate student to collect the data and make sure everything runs correctly. This time- and money- consuming effort is greatly reduced by the wireless Internet network connectivity provided by HPWREN and then extended to the sensors by FSP built wireless LAN to the individual towers, because it allows the users to monitor the data quality and collect the data remotely.