System Overview

Check out our system at (SYSTEM OFFLINE Summer 2010)

Summary Overview

Christchurch School strives to bring the river to the classroom and the classroom to the river. With this in mind, Christchurch installed a real time monitoring system that will provide up to the minute information about our river environment on the Rappahannock River. The system is located approximately 10 nautical miles from the Chesapeake Bay at the end of the dock at the Christchurch School waterfront area. The system integrates a weather station, light meter, water quality logger and camera that enables users to remotely determine the state of the river.

Basic System Description

The weather water quality system is a real time system that updates every 15 minutes. The system is composed of a Vaisala Weather Transmitter WXT510 that measures air temperature, wind speed, wind direction, barometric pressure, rainfall and relative humidity. A Li-COR LI200X Silicon Pyranometer radiation sensor measures sun plus sky radiation in Watts per meter squared. In the water, a YSI 6600V2-4 S Multi-Parameter Water Quality Logger measures water depth (tide), water temperature, salinity, oxygen concentration, pH and turbidity. The system also has Campbell Scientific CC640 camera that records an image of the Rappahannock River with each set of measurements. All measurements are stored on a Campbell Scientific CR1000 datalogger enclosed in a NEMA enclosure. The system is self-contained and derives it’s power from a solar panel that charges a battery during the day. Data is transmitted via a Campbell Scientific RF450 Spread Spectrum radio to a receiver located in the science classroom. The system is controlled using LoggerNet software. Data are then presented using LabView software and displayed on the internet.

(questions or comments ccarrillo@christchurchschool.org)