A sensor network driven micrometeorology study in the Serro do Mar rainforest canopy, southeast Brazil

We have engaged in a collaborative micrometeorology pilot study towards a deeper understanding of the rainforest canopy coupling to the lower atmosphere. As motivated by researchers at the University of Sao Paulo the statement of the scientific problem is: To what extent can fine-scale spatio-temporal measurement of temperature and humidity be used to better understand and refine estimates of surface heat and water vapor flux between rainforest canopy and the lower atmosphere? Here the desired spatial scale is meters and the sampling interval is thirty seconds. To address this scientific problem in an expansible manner we have adapted Johns Hopkins University Life Under Your Feet soil ecology wireless sensor networks to a scaffold grid placed high in the rainforest canopy. The deployment is at an experimental site in the Parque Estadual da Serro do Mar, a state reserve and coastal rainforest approximately 200 km east of Sao Paulo Brazil. Project support and coordination has been provided by Microsoft Research (MSR) with the idea of continuing from the pilot study to larger-scale research in Amazonia and towards making the project technology broadly adoptable. The underlying technological challenge is the optimization of good data harvested from remote study sites per research budget dollar. We present here a description of the constituent technology, methods of adaptation, cost of implementation, overview of environmental obstacles and preliminary study results.