Environmental Monitoring by Wireless Communication Networks

Messer, H.; Zinevich, A.; Alpert, Pinhas

doi:10.1126/science.1120034

Cited by 413 publications

(304 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…(4), calls for alternative sources of near-surface rainfall information. Microwave links from operational cellular telecommunication networks may be used for rainfall monitoring (5,6), potentially over large parts of the land surface of the earth. Along such links, radio signals propagate from a transmitting antenna at one base station to a receiving antenna at another base station (Fig.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Overeem

Leijnse

Uijlenhoet

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

236

274

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Accurate and timely surface precipitation measurements are crucial for water resources management, agriculture, weather prediction, climate research, as well as ground validation of satellite-based precipitation estimates. However, the majority of the land surface of the earth lacks such data, and in many parts of the world the density of surface precipitation gauging networks is even rapidly declining. This development can potentially be counteracted by using received signal level data from the enormous number of microwave links used worldwide in commercial cellular communication networks. Along such links, radio signals propagate from a transmitting antenna at one base station to a receiving antenna at another base station. Rain-induced attenuation and, subsequently, path-averaged rainfall intensity can be retrieved from the signal's attenuation between transmitter and receiver. Here, we show how one such a network can be used to retrieve the space-time dynamics of rainfall for an entire country (The Netherlands, ∼35,500 km 2 ), based on an unprecedented number of links (∼2,400) and a rainfall retrieval algorithm that can be applied in real time. This demonstrates the potential of such networks for real-time rainfall monitoring, in particular in those parts of the world where networks of dedicated ground-based rainfall sensors are often virtually absent.hydrometeorology | remote sensing

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Overeem

Leijnse

Uijlenhoet

2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

236

274

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“…In 2006, researchers demonstrated that they could estimate how much precipitation was falling in an area by comparing changes in the signal strength between communication towers 1 . But mobile-phone companies were reluctant to give researchers access to their signal data, and the field progressed slowly.…”

Section: Rain Forecasts Go Mobilementioning

confidence: 99%

Mobile-phone signals bolster street-level rain forecasts

Tollefson¹

2017

Nature

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“…As weather conditions and atmospheric phenomena cause impairments on radio links, wireless communication networks provide built-in environmental monitoring tools, as was recently demonstrated for rainfall (Messer et al, 2006(Messer et al, , 2007 and areal evaporation observations. In this paper we introduce a new technique to measure atmospheric humidity using data collected by wireless systems.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Technical Note: Novel method for water vapour monitoring using wireless communication networks measurements

2009

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Abstract. We propose a new technique that overcomes the obstacles of the existing methods for monitoring near-surface water vapour, by estimating humidity from data collected through existing wireless communication networks.Weather conditions and atmospheric phenomena affect the electromagnetic channel, causing attenuations to the radio signals. Thus, wireless communication networks are in effect built-in environmental monitoring facilities. The wireless microwave links, used in these networks, are widely deployed by cellular providers for backhaul communication between base stations, a few tens of meters above ground level. As a result, if all available measurements are used, the proposed method can provide moisture observations with high spatial resolution and potentially high temporal resolution. Further, the implementation cost is minimal, since the data used are already collected and saved by the cellular operators. In addition -many of these links are installed in areas where access is difficult such as orographic terrain and complex topography. As such, our method enables measurements in places that have been hard to measure in the past, or have never been measured before. The technique is restricted to weather conditions which exclude rain, fog or clouds along the propagation path. Strong winds that may cause movement of the link transmitter or receiver (or both) may also interfere with the ability to conduct accurate measurements.We present results from real-data measurements taken from two microwave links used in a backhaul cellular network that show convincing correlation to surface station humidity measurements. The measurements were taken daily in two sites, one in northern Israel (28 measurements), the other

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Environmental Monitoring by Wireless Communication Networks

Cited by 413 publications

References 3 publications

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Country-wide rainfall maps from cellular communication networks

Mobile-phone signals bolster street-level rain forecasts

Technical Note: Novel method for water vapour monitoring using wireless communication networks measurements

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