Capturing the Long Tail of Sensor Web

Large-scale sensor networks and the vast data sets they produce worldwide are being utilized and published by a rising number of organizations on an ever-increasing frequency. Examples include the global scale ARGOS network of buoys1, the weather networks of the World Meteorological Organization, the global GPS Zenith Total Delay (ZTD) observation network, etc. Significant amount of efforts (e.g., GEOSS2 and NOAA IOOS3) have been put forth to web-enable these large-scale sensor networks so that these sensors and their data can be accessible through interoperable sensor web standards. Moreover, with the advent of the low-cost sensor networks and data loggers, it is technologically and economically feasible for individual scientists to deploy and operate small to medium scale sensor arrays at strategic locations for their own research purposes. There is a spectrum of sensor networks ranging from local scale short-term sensor arrays to global scale permanent observatories. The vision of a worldwide sensor web is becoming a reality.