%0 Conference Proceedings
%3 von randow_network.pdf
%4 sid.inpe.br/mtc-m19/2011/03.22.13.41
%8 dec.
%A von Randow, Celso,
%A Santos, Rafael Duarte Coelho dos,
%A Rocha, Humberto,
%B American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting.
%@secondarytype PRE CI
%D 2010
%F self-archiving-INPE-MCTIC-GOV-BR
%K BIOGEOSCIENCES / Biosphere/atmosphere interactions,  BIOGEOSCIENCES / Instruments and techniques.
%P 04
%S Abstracts
%T Network of Environmental Sensors in Tropical Rain Forests
%U http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2010AGUFM.B52C..04V
%V 52
%X The interaction between the Earths atmosphere and the terrestrial biosphere plays a fundamental role in the climate system and in biogeochemical and hydrological cycles, through the exchange of energy and mass (for example, water and carbon), between the vegetation and the atmospheric boundary layer, and the main focus of many environmental studies is to quantify this exchange over several terrestrial biomes. Over natural surfaces like the tropical forests, factors like spatial variations in topography or in the vegetation cover can significantly affect the air flow and pose big challenges for the monitoring of the regional carbon budget of terrestrial biomes. It is hardly possible to understand the air flow and reduce the uncertainties of flux measurements in complex terrains like tropical forests without an approach that recognizes the complexity of the spatial variability of the environmental variables. With this motivation, a partnership involving Microsoft Research, Johns Hopkins University, University of São Paulo and Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE, the Brazilian national institute for space research) has been developing research activities to test the use of prototypes of environmental sensors (geosensors) in the Atlantic coastal and in the Amazonian rain forests in Brazil, forming sensor networks with high spatial and temporal resolution, and to develop software tools for data quality control and integration. The main premise is that the geosensors should have relatively low cost, what enables the formation of monitoring networks with a large number of sensors spatially distributed. A pilot study deployed 200+ sensors over the Atlantic coastal forest in Sao Paulo state, Brazil. Here we present the results from this study, highlighting the current discussions on applications of this type of measurements in studies of biosphere-atmosphere interaction in the tropics. Envisioning a possible wide deployment of geosensors in Amazonia in the future, the team is currently working on three main components: 1) assembly and calibration of prototypes of geosensors of air temperature and humidity, with reproductive and reliable ceramic sensor elements that will adequately operate under the environmental conditions observed in the tropics; 2) development of software tools for management, quality control, visualization and integration of data collected in geosensor networks; and 3) planning of the Amazon experimental campaign, with the installation of the first tens to hundreds of sensors within and above the rainforest canopy, aiming at a test of the system to study the spatial variability of temperature and humidity.
%@area CST
%@electronicmailaddress celso.vonrandow@inpe.br
%@electronicmailaddress rafael.santos@lac.inpe.br
%@electronicmailaddress humberto@model.iag.usp.br
%@e-mailaddress lise@dpi.inpe.br
%@documentstage not transferred
%@group CST-CST-INPE-MCT-BR
%@group LAC-CTE-INPE-MCT-BR
%@usergroup administrator
%@usergroup lise@dpi.inpe.br
%@usergroup marciana
%@affiliation Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)
%@affiliation Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)
%@affiliation IAG, University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
%@nexthigherunit 8JMKD3MGPCW/3ESGTTP 8JMKD3MGPCW/3F3T29H
%@versiontype publisher
%@holdercode {isadg {BR SPINPE} ibi 8JMKD3MGPCW/3DT298S}
%2 sid.inpe.br/mtc-m19/2011/03.22.13.41.26