An Application of the Wireless Sensor Network Technology for Foehn Monitoring in Real Time

Abstract

Foehn is one of the common climate phenomena in Taiwan because of geographical factors. The foehn is associated with high temperature and low humidity, which often leads to plant death and even causes serious forest fires. The natural disaster relief fund in Taiwan has covered the loss caused by the foehn. However, no monitoring system has been developed for the foehn, so farmers are not able to immediately obtain foehn-related information and activate necessary schemes for disaster reduction. The research aims at foehn detection and uses the wireless sensor network technology to build a real-time system to monitor foehn. Since the characteristics of wireless sensor networks are low costs, unmanned control and transmission distance up to 80 meters, it is feasible to apply the networks to environmental monitoring. When foehn occurs, the wireless communication devices in the proposed monitoring system will transmit the temperature and humidity information collected by monitoring stations to the gateway module, and sprinkler module action immediately for cooling and increasing humidity to protect the plants from pericarp damage or fruit drop phenomenon caused by foehn.