Managing the energy-for-data exchange in remote monitoring systems

Remote monitoring in the arctic is necessary to understand the effects of climate change on the cryosphere. The harsh climate makes this difficult by limiting access, interfering with equipment, and providing minimal environmental energy. Energy harvesting allows some independence of remote monitors but requires an energy management strategy to be effective. This strategy must regulate the remote monitor's exchange of energy for data and be able to balance data requirements with the environment's limited energy profile. A simulation is used to compare two strategies: the first attempts to maximize data quality at the expense of energy security, while the second limits its energy usage to selectively improve certain data properties at the expense of others. The second strategy is able to collect more data using less energy because of its flexibility. In the future, this simulation will be experimentally validated and used to explore control strategies for various remote monitoring applications.