A Nested Ecohydrological Wireless Sensor Network for Capturing the Surface Heterogeneity in the Midstream Areas of the Heihe River Basin, China

Abstract

This letter introduces the ecohydrological wireless sensor network (EHWSN), which we have installed in the middle reach of the Heihe River Basin. The EHWSN has two primary objectives: the first objective is to capture the multiscale spatial variations and temporal dynamics of soil moisture, soil temperature, and land surface temperature in the heterogeneous farmland; and the second objective is to provide a remote-sensing ground-truth estimate with an approximate kilometer pixel scale using spatial upscaling. This ground truth can be used for validation and evaluation of remote-sensing products. The EHWSN integrates distributed observation nodes to achieve an automated, intelligent, and remote-controllable network that provides superior integrated, standardized, and automated observation capabilities for hydrological and ecological processes research at the basin scale.