Perlaky Nick, Ellenburg W Lee, Nair Udaysankar, Klein Nick, Solomon Michael B
Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, USA.
Department of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama in Huntsville, Huntsville, AL, USA.
Environ Monit Assess. 2025 Jun 3;197(7):724. doi: 10.1007/s10661-025-14166-4.
In order to bolster drought assessment and forecasting capabilities in Alabama, The University of Alabama in Huntsville has developed a network of rapidly deployable, low-cost soil moisture, temperature, and environment monitoring stations (STEMMNet). This network provides near-real-time transmission of in-situ sensed, high temporal resolution soil data, offering an extension beyond climatological analysis into operational use. Stations are manufactured using commercially available, inexpensive hardware and use low-cost sensors which demonstrated comparable accuracy when evaluated against an existing research-grade soil moisture network. Months of testing in a variety of environments allowed for several system optimizations, yielding a robust network with a high uptime. Collaborations with outside agencies including Alabama Forestry and select National Weather Service offices proved the versatility and need for this network. This study aims to outline the design process, data flow, lab, and comparative performance analysis, network design, and outcomes of STEMMNet. Overall, the network has performed well and demonstrates the ability to obtain high-quality soil data from a low-cost, minimal footprint, rapidly deployable station.
为了加强阿拉巴马州的干旱评估和预测能力，位于亨茨维尔的阿拉巴马大学开发了一个由可快速部署、低成本的土壤湿度、温度和环境监测站组成的网络（STEMMNet）。该网络提供原位感测的高时间分辨率土壤数据的近实时传输，将应用范围从气候分析扩展到实际操作中。监测站使用市售的廉价硬件制造，并使用低成本传感器，与现有的研究级土壤湿度网络相比，这些传感器显示出相当的准确性。在各种环境中进行了数月的测试，对系统进行了多项优化，从而形成了一个正常运行时间长的强大网络。与包括阿拉巴马州林业局和部分国家气象局办公室在内的外部机构的合作证明了该网络的多功能性和必要性。本研究旨在概述STEMMNet的设计过程、数据流、实验室和比较性能分析、网络设计及成果。总体而言，该网络运行良好，展示了从低成本、占地小、可快速部署的监测站获取高质量土壤数据的能力。
