In Situ Monitoring of Environmental Conditions of Flax Using Wireless Sensor Network and Independent Monitoring Devices.

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) and Independent Monitoring Devices (IMD) are being used for several applications in the Agricultural Science field to achieve real-time data collection as well as improving the efficiency and accuracy of data collection and processing. A study was set up at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, Beaumont, Texas; to in situ monitor the environmental conditions of a flax field using WSN and IMD. The objective of this study was to compare the data from WSN, IMD and a local weather-monitoring station. The WSN consists of sensors, nodes, repeater, receiver and data logger. The WSN operates on the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio band system on a 2.4GHz frequency. A signal from the sensor is sent to the repeater via the node and from the repeater to data logger via receiver. The WSN was used to collect air temperature, soil temperature and moisture in the field. The IMD includes wind-loggers and an actively cooled air-temperature and moisture apparatus (MINCER). The wind loggers record the wind speed and direction and the MINCER apparatus record air moisture and temperature. The WSN and IMD data showed no difference for air temperature measured at the same height in the field. However, data obtained from a weather-monitoring station was different from the WSN with respect to air temperature, soil temperature and moisture and from IMD with respect to air temperature and moisture and wind velocity.