Swiss Experiment
In
the environmental science domain, drawing accurate scientific
conclusions, forecasting or validating models requires widespread
temporal and spatial environmental monitoring. The overhead in
collecting these observations is large and very often duplicated
between projects and institutions. The data collected may be more
effectively used if it were shared between synergetic projects. Using
these synergies also helps us to understand the links between
interdisciplinary processes.
The Swiss Experiment (SwissEx) is an initiative of the Competence Centre Environment and Sustainability (CCES), headed by WSL/SLF which
has been created to provide a platform for large scale sensor network
deployment and information retrieval and exploitation. Significant external funding from various external organisations, in particular NCCR-MICS, have allowed this to happen.
Figure 1: Microsoft SensorMap provides a centralised point from where the datasets from all of the institutions can be accessed as if it were a single dataset.
SwissEx is a collaboration of environmental science and technology research projects (both from CCES and
other institutions across Switzerland) which will bring together field
experiments and a common modern generic cyberinfrastructure on an
unprecedented scale. This collaboration will allow common acquisition
technologies to be shared and encourage data sharing and preservation
of knowledge through the use of a state-of-the-art databasing and data
processing infrastructure. Through the re-use of data, the SwissEx aims
to bridge the traditional scientific domains, broadening scientific
knowledge on the interdisciplinary process interactions with the aim of
eventually exploiting these links in large scale sensor deployments to
improve environmental hazard forecasting and warning.
The challenge is threefold:
- Scientific: The
use of a generic system for the collection of data (for a wide range of
parameters, space and time scales) and for assistance in data
validation and interpretation.
- Technological: The
deployment of a large number of sensors with differing requirements for
data rates, resolutions, embedded intelligence, cost, data acquisition,
streaming, storage, security, authorization etc.
- Knowledge Management: Recording
the collection scenario, methods, locations and times of data
acquisition and post-processing alongside the real-time data and
allowing scientists to effectively search for their required data.
For more information on SwissEx in general, please visit the SwissEx wiki www.swiss-experiment.ch
Swiss Experiment at SLF
In addition to the management of SwissEx being centralised at SLF, Davos, SwissEx is at the centre of the improvement of the infrastructure for experimental data in Davos and is bringing in additional sensors, under development within SwissEx to improve the temporal and spatial resolution of the data available. This improvement in instrumentation is helping to centralise experiments and hence collaboratively utilise the data available.
Experiments in Davos in winter 2009 will centralise on the Wannengrat and Dorfberg regions. The instrumentation available to the projects is shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: All of the sensors above will be available to the projects from a single data portal. This means that sensor networks from a variety of scales can be used simultaneously for real-time data processing as well as for direct insertion into models.
Sensor networks on a variety of scales, from national networks with a resolution of tens of kilometers, to local networks with a resolution of tens of meters or less will be available in a single data portal, GSN (Global Sensor Networks) along with data from isolated sensors as well as manually retrieved sensor data. This data will also be located at a variety of GSN servers from across the country, hence services such as Microsoft SensorMap and the generic model interface for GSN (meteoIO) will provide real-time data availability for the scientists involved as well as the general public.
The concentration of sensors in one particular area, will provide a dataset which can be used for many years to come. The advantages of this have already been proven by the acquisition of the GAUDEX dataset in 2003 on Gaudergrat (in association with the University of Leeds). This dataset is still requested currently and will be available in the same computing infrastructure.
Publicly available sensor data from the Swiss Experiment project can be found here.
Radar data from Davos can be found here.
An example of how the dataset will be used
For verification and further development of snow drift models, we need to know where the snow falls and the transport mechanisms once it has been deposited: precipitation distribution will be provided by the radar, meteorological parameters will be available from a combination of IMIS stations, fixed meteo stations and SensorScope stations and the final resting point of the wind redistributed snow will be available from the laser scans. The various scales of meteorological measurement means that the
verification data is available to try to get to the results provided by
the dense network measurements, based on the wider scale measurements
and the topography. This is the basis of the 'SwissEx Science' project.
The high resolution laser-scan measurements of the snow depths measured at Wannengrat are available elsewhere, but the innovation of the measurements at Wannengrat is that they are routinely carried out, meaning that a time-series is produced. From this time series, we can not only see the redistribution of the snow, but also the distribution of snow as it melts. Combined with the incoming radiation, lysimeters, snow water equivalent measurements and the runoff measurements from the gauging station below, this data set provides a unique opportunity for snow hydrologists to measure the catchment in minute detail
The accurate snow cover measurements and density of solar radiation measurements also gives plant ecologists a unique opportunity to look at the variation in the biodiversity on a small scale based on the duration of snow cover.
The constant, high density measurements of meteo and snow depth parameters provides a significant input to avalanche fracture scientists. This information is complementary to the manual snow profile measurements made at Wannengrat and allows a detailed assessment of the spatial and temporal stability of the snowpack.
Where high density wind field measurements are taking place, not only snow drift can be characterised. Scientists at WSL/SLF and ETHZ investigating soil erosion due to wind will take advantage of these measurements to investigate the distribution of sand at the site.
Measurement purpose 6
The centralisation of all of this measurement equipment also provides a dataset which can be used in the development and verification of new sensors. The radar, as well as a prototype of a new low power disdrometer, a new anemometer and the Hydrosys system are all examples of new sensor developments which will be taking advantage of the dense measurement infrastructure.
The measurements above are an inexhaustive list of what measurements on Wannengrat will be used for. In addition to this, measurements at Weissfluhjoch and Dorfberg will continue the snow science and sensor development work carried out on a regular basis by SLF. All of this data will however be in a centralised resource, where data can easily be discovered and compared across the fieldsites, the area of Davos, Switzerland and even wider afield.
Contact
| Keywords: |
SwissEx, Swiss Experiment, EPFL, CCES, ETH, ETHZ, Sensorscope, TRAMM, BigLink, RECORD, Wannengrat, Microsoft, GSN, Extremes, Hydrosys |
