FireWxNet: A Multi-Tiered Portable Wireless System for Monitoring Weather Conditions in Wildland Fire Environments ; CU-CS-999-05
Carl Hartung, Carl Seielstad, Saxon Holbrook, Richard Y. Han · CU Scholar (University of Colorado Boulder) · 2005
In this paper we present FireWxNet, a multi-tiered portable wireless system for monitoring weather conditions in rugged wildland re environments. FireWxNet provides the re ghting community the ability to safely and easily measure and view re and weather conditions over a wide range of locations and elevations within forest res. This previously unattainable information allows re behavior analysts to better predict re behavior, heightening safety considerations. Our system uses a tiered structure beginning with directional radios to stretch deployment capabilities into the wilderness far beyond current infrastructures. At the end of our system we design and integrate a multi-hop sensor network to provide environmental data. We also integrate a web-camera to provide visual data. This paper describes a week long full system deployment utilizing 3 sensor networks and 2 web-cams in the Selway-Salmon Complex Fires of 2005. We perform an analysis of system performance and present observations and lessons gained from our deployment.