Snowcloud: A Complete Data Gathering System for Snow Hydrology Research

Snowcloud is a data gathering system for snow hydrology field research campaigns conducted in harsh climates and remote areas. The system combines distributed wireless sensor network technology and computational techniques to provide data to researchers at lower cost and higher spatial resolution than ground-based systems using traditional “monolithic” technologies. Supporting the work of a variety of collaborators, Snowcloud has seen multiple Winter deployments in settings ranging from high desert to arctic, resulting in over a dozen node-years of practical experience. In this paper, we discuss both the system design and deployment experiences.