Next week Queensland’s James Cook University will connect more than 600 sensors of various kinds at its Daintree Rainforest Observatory (DRO) to the National Broadband Network, giving researchers access to real-time data and video feeds from the forest.

Over the past two years, the university in tropical north Queensland has made significant leaps by collecting data from over 600 sensors. The DRO’s centrepiece is a 45-metre tall crane with a 55-metre boom and gondola that allows access to anywhere within a one-hectare plot of rainforest.

This includes 60 sap flow sensors, 60 automated dendrometer bands, 10 soil moisture pits, more than 90 temperature and humidity sensors, two weather stations and cameras continuously recording different aspects.

A future upgrade will also see water flow sensors added to an adjacent stream. By opening online access to the data, researchers will gain insights into complex processes such as hydrology, erosion, climate change and ecology.

James Cook University e-research centre director Jeremy VanDerWal told iTnews a fibre-optic cable connects a server at the research station to the crane, with wi-fi used to link up the sensors.

“We have around 200 sensors measuring temperature and humidity from the ground to the canopy – one every metre. So we can see how rainfall humidity and rainfall changes from ground to canopy,” he said.

“Some of research shows that you can get up to a 13 degree temperature difference from above the canopy to the ground.”

Data from the cameras and sensors is fed into an instance of the environmental data management system EnviroCOMS on the research station’s server, with a separate instance on the servers at the university’s Cairns campus.

Due to the remote location of the facility much of this quality data has been cut-off from the rest of the research community.

The situation is set to improve significantly on April 16, when the research station is connected to the NBN via satellite, meaning off-site researchers will be able to access real-time data from the rainforest.

The university also plans to also make real-time video feeds from the cameras available to the general public.

“That data is being collected and used for small investigations that people are doing, but there’s so much more knowledge that could be gleaned from this data,” VanDerWal said.

Check the DRO website in the coming weeks for updates.