SAVANT/Pi-Sense: Preliminary Assessment of a Parallel Sensor Network for Boundary Layer Observations

This work proposes a new form of sensor to be used in Boundary Layer studies. The SAVANT (Stable Atmospheric Variability And Transport) project, completed in the Fall of 2018 allowed for the development and testing of temperature, humidity, and pressure sensor which uses an MPI (message passing interface) to validate observations and process data in the field. This sensor was named Pi-Sense, and the purpose for its development was to drastically reduce post-study data processing and handling time. The sensor network comprises of 30 Raspberry Pi’s equipped with Sense Hat modules, which are connected and powered via ethernet cable and 5V micro USB power supply. An algorithm, designed to handle the communication of observations from one sensor to another in case of erroneous, anomalous, or absent values, was programmed in python using the mpi4py package. In this study, we compare the results of the Pi-Sense with that of a Distributed Fiber Optic System (DFTS).