Design and implementation of a wireless sensor network for weather monitoring in wildland fire environments

Since their inception, wireless sensor networks have excited earth scientists with the possibilities of venturing into previously unstudied domains. The small form factor and relatively low cost of sensor nodes make them an ideal tool to explore, monitor, and record previously unattainable information about various environments and natural phenomena. In the spirit of exploring new domains, we attempt to build a portable wireless sensor network application for monitoring environmental conditions in wildland fire environments.;The single most important factor influencing fire behavior is weather. Specifically, temperature, relative humidity, and wind are the three primary elements with the most significant effect on fire behavior. Also, weather conditions can change rapidly across different elevations and aspect. Thus, the ability to accurately monitor weather conditions in a fire environment correlates to a fire behavior analyst's ability to accurately predict fire behavior.;In this paper we hypothesize that we can build a sensor network application to monitor weather conditions in wildland fire environments. Specifically, we seek to monitor temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed and direction over a wide range of elevation. After deploying our system in a real forest; fire environment, we evaluate our system's effectiveness with the criteria of longevity, robustness, and ability to reliably send sensed data over multiple short range radio hops.