PermaSense Project home page

About

The main objective of the PermaSense project is to build and customize a set of wireless measurement units for use in remote areas with harsh environmental monitoring conditions. The second goal is the gathering of environmental data that helps to understand the processes that connect climate change and rock fall in permafrost areas. To this end, two sensor fields will be deployed in the Swiss alps and be operated over several years.

Wireless sensors contribute to permafrost science. They will enable to easily monitor larger permafrost areas with denser sampling, leading to better predictions on the consequences of global warming for alpine regions.

Beyond helping the modelling of permafrost processes, this research is also applicable to natural hazard surveillance. Currently, there is lack of easy to deploy geo-monitoring systems that are low-cost, cheap in maintenance, and easily reconfigurable when deployed. With better wireless sensor solutions, larger hazard areas can be permanently monitored and linked to warning system that help to protect human lives.

What has been achieved so far? The consequences of global warming due to permafrost degradation cannot be predicted yet in an appropriate manner. Furthermore, there is an urgent need for continuous environmental monitoring at various time scales. Finally, there is still a lack of cheap and easy to deploy stand-alone monitoring and warning systems.

Where does the project stand now? The project begins in the fall of 2005. The first generation of sensors shall be ready early summer 2006 where climatic conditions permit to deploy them. After that, access is more or less impossible for the span of a year, during which continuous measurements will be done.

Publications

   PermaSense: Investigating Permafrost with a WSN in the Swiss Alps (4th Workshop on Embedded Networked Sensors (EmNets 2007), Cork, 25-26 June 07)

   Investigating Steep Bedrock Permafrost with Wireless Sensor Networks (AGM'07)

   PermaSense Deployment September/October 2006 (MICS'06)

   Investigating Permafrost with a WSN in the Swiss Alps (MICS'06)

   Investigating Heat and Moisture Fluxes in High-Alpine Rock Walls Around the Jungfraujoch with a Wireless Sensor Field (Jungfrau'06)

Photo Gallery

Gallery 1: (Jungfraujoch site examination, Aug 2006)
Gallery 2: (deployment, Nov 2006)
Gallery 3: (deployment, Nov 2006)
Gallery 4: (deployment examination, Apr 2007)
Gallery 5: (Jungfraujoch research station)
Gallery 6: (Matterhorn)

People

Christian Tschudin (UBasel): wireless routing and mobile code since 1999 (Uppsala), conceptual aspects (forwarding arch), novel routing protocols (LUNAR), but also AODV-UU, performance evaluation testbed (APE), gray zone problem.

Stephan Gruber (UZurich): geographer, quantitative three-dimensional modeling of permafrost temperature fields, remote PF sensing.

Daniel Vonder Muhll (UZurich): geophysicist, initiator of the Permafrost Monitoring Switzerland (PERMOS), permafrost delegate of the Glaciological Commission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences, national contact for the international permafrost association.

Andreas Hasler (UZurich): geographer, quantitative modeling of heat exchange, thawing processes and their effect on rock slope stability in permafrost.

Links

   Computer Networks group @ University of Basel

   AlpuG GmbH (consulting in the field of alpine risk management, safety concepts, risk analyses, snow avalanche dynamics, danger maps, in developments of remote measuring and control systems adapted to rough climatic conditions in alpine environments and to design, build und support remote warning, alarm and measuring systems)

   SensAlpin GmbH