The sensor platforms they used in Masaya Volcano were Smart Environment and Ambient
Control sensors as their data repeaters. More than 80 di erent sensors were installed in order
to monitor H
2
S, CO
2
, temperature, atmospheric pressure, and humidity. These sensors were
vacuum sealed to protect them from extreme heat coming from the volcano. The temperature
was around 65° Celsius where the sensors were placed. However, the temperature could be high
as 537° Celsius on some parts of the active volcano.
The collected data from the sensors would directly send information to a gateway. The
IoT gateway obtained the data and sent it by using 3G communications to the database. The
data was later visualized by using Predix, a cloud software platform GE built for the industrial
internet.
Saving Lives by Opening Data
The main objective of the project was to build a digital early warning system to predict volcanic
eruptions in advance. The data obtained from the sensors will be utilized by scientists and data
experts to digitally simulate what is happening inside the volcano. The project gives the public
service of giving them access to the general population and decision makers to experience the
volcano in real-time.
The oceans consist of vast forms of aquatic creatures. It is estimated that we humans have
only discovered a tiny percentage of what is actually present under the water. However, not
all the aquatic species are doing well under the water. The Beluga Whales are considered to be
an endangered aquatic species. They mainly live in the cold Arctic Ocean and near the coastal
areas of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia. Their population is estimated to be 150,000 in
the world. Plus, only 400 are said to inhabit Alaska.
These Whales have a very fi xed behavioral pattern. They usually live in the open ocean
during the winters and migrate to the warmer areas in summers. However, they remain close
to the continents and sometimes they even travel to rivers by several kilometers. The rivers give
them temporary refuge and facilitate the seasonal renovation for their epidermal layer. Sadly,
the environmental and acoustic pollution resulted by the human activities place a real danger
to these species. The pollutants caused by human can have a catastrophic e ect on the animals.
It can lead to an increase in the cases of cancer, deuteriation of the immunity system, and repro-
ductive pathologies. Many studies have already proven the fact that cancer frequency is higher
in the determined areas.
A natural gas leak took place on 2017 approximately 6 kilometers in the Nikiski (Alaska).
People reported the leakage to the Alaskan authorities, which took the prospect of monitoring
the area due to its being a critical place for the already endangered Beluga Whales.
CASE STUDY 3
PROTECTING BELUGA WHALES IN
ALASKA BY USING FLEXIBLE SENSOR
PLATFORM
134 Internet of Things
Internet_of_Things_CH05_pp105-140.indd 134 9/3/2019 10:13:56 AM
Aridea Solutions a company from West Virginia was given the task to design a solution
to monitor any kind of leaks. The company has already been developing monitoring technol-
ogies to tackle environmental challenges. The Aridea Solutions team had the goal to develop
something which continuously monitors the environmental parameters in real-time and can
communicate with people and machines. After some intense hours of critical research, the
company decided that a buoy would be the most suitable platform for the required application.
Aridea Solutions got a smart sensor platform to permit the interfacing the dierent industrial
protocols needed to interface the sensors. The smart platform they had chosen would easily
allow them for aggregation and transmission of data to any shop located several miles away
from the buoy by using a 900 MHZ communication protocol.
Aridea deployed the wireless sensor platform to monitor air and water near the leak
aected area where the Beluga Whales and other aquatic organisms are inhabiting. The project
aimed to monitor methane, CO
2
, and oxygen levels above the water surface. Due to the urgency
of the problem, the project had a very hectic and tight timeline. Thus, the engineers at Aridea
worked together for 2 weeks to design, build, and deploy the buoy-based monitoring system
to the aected location. Once the system was deployed and training was given to the opera-
tors, sensor calibration also took place for superior accuracy. The system worked fined as it was
meant to and gave back data to the scientists for further analysis and quantify the environmen-
tal impact in the area.
What parameters are measured in the air?
• Temperature, relative humidity, and pressure,
• CO
2
: Carbon dioxide,
• O
2
: Oxygen,
• CH
4
: Methane, and
• Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and Lower Explosive Limit (LEL).
What parameters are measured in water?
• Dissolved methane: Pro Oceanus Mini CH
4
,
• Dissolved oxygen,
• PH levels, and
• Conductivity.
The deployed platform effectively collected and transmitted important environmental
data into a gateway on a nearby ship. Then the data got aggregated by the gateway and was
sent to Aridea’s Terralytix platform by using a 4G cellular connection. This platform helped
the scientists to view and analyze the data in real-time. Until the leakage was repaired, the
buoy system was used many times to monitor the environmental conditions in the affected
area.
The sensors deployed for the job were well designed to outperform the extreme con-
ditions. The main reason behind the success was perhaps the limited time frame, which
led the engineers to work too hard to tackle the challenging environmental conditions.
The deployment process was itself a big job as buoy had to drift through the affected area
within reasonable timings.
Chapter 5 IoT Core Modules 135
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