Davies Reef Deployments of the Wireless Sensor Network

Sensor network infrastructure was installed at Davies Reef in the central Great Barrier Reef off Townsville, Australia. The infrastructure consists of a base station mounted on the existing reef communications tower and a number of buoys which carry the actual sensors.The initial design is to monitor the flow of water through the lagoon, the connectivity between the lagoon and the open ocean and the presence of an upwelling signal as oceanic water crosses the open shelf in the Townsville region. This site is linked to ones on the edge of the shelf (Myrmidon Reef) and sites closer in such as Rib Reef and Orpheus Island.The deployment in December 2009 consisted of the base station using the Telstra nextG service and five buoys or sensor floats. The sensor floats carry a mixture of sensors but typically a surface MEA Thermistor and a bottom mounted SeaBird SBE39 (temp + pressure), for some floats the SBE39 is replaced by a SBE37 to give salinity (as conductivity), temperature and presure.On the tower is a vaisala WXT520 weather station.The project looks to deploy sensor networks at seven sites along the Great Barrier Reef to measure a range of physical parameters at a range of scales. The project will install communications, data and platform infrastructure that will support future sensor work looking at biological and chemical parameters.Wireless Sensor Networks Facility (formerly known as Facility for The Automated Intelligent Monitoring of Marine Systems (FAIMMS)), part of the Great Barrier Reef Ocean Observing System project (GBROOS) (IMOS)