Collaborative Research: Facility Support: Transformation of Distributed Environmental Sensing

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0930061SelkerThis award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Granted funds will support establishment of a prototype ?Hydrologic Measurement Facility? to be named the Center for Multiscale Sensing of the Environment (CMSE), allowing for the first time broad community access to fiber optic Raman temperature measurement capable of near continuous (1 m) and precise (+/- 0.1 deg C) observations of river bottom, lake, or estuary bottom, snow pack or soil horizon temperatures over distances as great at 10 km with the broad goal of allowing for unprecedented high resolution spatial and temporal observations of water reservoir properties and improved quantification of the pathways and fluxes between reservoirs. When placed in a stream or river, fiber optic DTS allows for observation of the location, temperature, and flux of each groundwater inflow, calculation of an exact heat budget to determine hyporheic exchange, and observation of micro-thermal habitats critical to successful larval fish recruitment. CMSE will be managed and operated in a collaborative partnership between Oregon State University (ORST) and the University of Nevada ? Reno (UNR). Dense observations of environmental parameters with rapid data dissemination are needed to support advanced hydrologic system model development and validation. Refined models are needed to support sound water resource, forestry and fisheries management and a better understanding of the myriad feedbacks between water reservoir distribution and climate. Funds will support a postdoctoral scientist at UNR and a half time technical position at ORST.