Satellite-linked sensor networks for planetary scale monitoring

Sensor networks continue to attract significant interest in various research communities. An individual sensor system can provide important observations within a local area. However, local observations alone are not sufficient for some applications that require a global coverage. In this paper, we introduce our interdisciplinary project PLASMA (planetary scale monitoring architecture). PLASMA aims at providing an integrated platform for in-situ and remote sensing. Our focus includes environmental monitoring, disaster monitoring, and emergency response systems, enabled by reliable and high performance networking infrastructures. This paper discusses motivating applications and the research challenges of our project in its early stages.