Online visualization of adaptive distributed sensor webs

Sensor webs for environmental monitoring integrate data from a large number of fixed and mobile sensors. The spatial and temporal distribution of these sensors varies with time when the network controllers adapt the operation of the sensors to detected events. The paper describes an approach for online visualization of data from such sensor webs. The visualization approach explicitly takes into account the varying resolutions of the sensor data and depicts the movement of mobile sensors. The sensor web visualization utilizes the Google Earth 3D virtual globe software and data representation formats. This enables data from sensor webs to be made available on the Internet. Users download this data and control the visualization using their own desktop computer. The paper demonstrates the visualization approach on data collected from the New York Harbor Observing and Prediction System. The data includes oceanographic parameters collected using onshore and offshore sensors and from mobile platforms such as unmanned underwater vehicles and passing surface ships.