Use the Wireless Sensor to measure snow and ice

More than half of the water is used for agricultural activities and the daily life of people in California and the United States is supplied by the currents in the snowy mountains of Sierra, so that the measurement of snow as well as predicting how many flows and identifying the main flow each year, is a top priority task.

Tools like this will make it easier and more accurate to measure snow and ice on the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Currently, the authorities have conducted the measurement of the thickness of the snow cover in a range of pre-designated locations, and they compare this result with the data collected in the previous year to make a plan. report on water resources and thereby determine how much water will be supplied to farmers and communities this year. Because the data collected is limited and the predictions may be uncertain, this will lead to waste throughout the process.

All of that can be changed right away, according to Professor Roger Bales, who works at the University of California: Merced College with help from UC Berkeley University and UC Center's Information Technology Research Center. (CITRIS) has designed a system that uses a wireless sensor cluster to provide accurate measurements of the thickness of snowpack, groundwater flow stored in soil, flow and other important factors. , to provide this available data to the people at any time.

' To predict, according to the conventional approach, you will start with finding out how much snow is present ,' Bales said. 'Then you measure the amount of rainfall, model the time of snow melt and estimate the amount of water needed for agriculture and people's daily activities, as well as the amount of water released and flow to other areas. . '

The results of water management have contributed significantly to California's agricultural sector with annual revenues of about $ 35 billion, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Because of the limited information they can access and changes in seasonal rainfall and temperature, Bales said, California state water resources managers often allocate water according to bad scenarios. Most possible. If the flows are really better than expected, this may be too late for farmers who already plan their crops based on initial allocation estimates.

' Water resources managers need to provide accurate estimates of water resources, ' Bales said. ' They came, and made predictions that they themselves are unlikely to happen. If we reduce the uncertainty in their forecast, in a way that people can accept, we can benefit from tens to hundreds of millions of dollars for our economy. California State. '

In addition to improving the process of monitoring and predicting water flow, the data generated by wireless sensor units will provide an unprecedented resource for future research. Although this system is only in the testing phase, the data obtained from it can be used for environmental monitoring worldwide.

Low-power components will be used in instrumental clusters designed to measure snow depth and other important factors.

It is a particularly difficult task to measure and monitor throughout the year, the amount of water flowing from snow-capped mountains. Experts must travel to remote, very expensive and dangerous areas, to measure the thickness of the snow, and give vague predictions of water reserves based on determining the complexity of terrain and density of snowfall, heat absorption, thawing .

Bales, a mountain hydrologist, works with Professor Steven Glaser, at UC Berkeley, to say that his work is related to wireless sensor networks - a test project in the mountains Sierra, in Southern California State. Sensors are not placed under a network, but instead, they are placed in strategic locations, in areas of varying heights, depending on conditions such as cover trees, types soil and other factors.

It is a project to test data records from 300 sensors, including more than 1 square kilometer in the Sierra mountains, south of California. The next phase will establish about 25 equipment assemblies in the American River basin, including about 4,500 square kilometers in Folsom water stamping, which provides a significant part of domestic water for California and the United States.

'We will set up a network of local networks, strategically located to capture geographic changes in the American River basin, ' Bales said. 'We will then measure all water cycles in the entire American River basin. '