Latest detection technology to combat global warming

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reported in its 2007 report that the rate of global warming has accelerated significantly, and the global temperature and water temperature have risen significantly. The glaciers and ice sheets in the north and south have been melting continuously, and the sea level has been rising. Regarding the causes of climate change, the consensus is that greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are the main factor in atmospheric warming.

The sun is constantly sending energy to the earth, and according to the energy balance, the earth must also send the same amount of energy to space. However, because the temperature of the earth is much lower than that of the sun, the wavelength of the energy it radiates to the outside is longer than that of the sun, especially in the infrared band. The earth's atmosphere isolates most of the heat energy and reflects it to the earth's surface. This phenomenon is called the greenhouse effect; in addition, human activities, especially the consumption of paleo-bioenergy oil and the consumption of a large amount of forest resources, have greatly increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As a result, the earth absorbs more and more solar energy, thereby strengthening the greenhouse effect and causing the global climate to continue to warm.

The phenomenon of global warming is already very serious, and exploring corresponding solutions requires the joint efforts of engineers and scientists from all over the world. The final results of the exploration need to be analyzed based on a large amount of reliable data provided by thousands of detection instruments distributed around the world that have never been published.

People have long recognized that climate change is crucial to the survival of every living thing on Earth, so they have long been working hard to develop and find measures and technical methods to monitor and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the Kyoto Protocol signed in 1997, a plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions was formulated: by 2012, global greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced to 1990 levels. The greenhouse gases specified in the Kyoto Protocol and confirmed by the Atmospheric Environment Committee are: CO2, N2O, CH4, and SF6 (Figure 1).

Accurately tracking and monitoring actual greenhouse gas emissions is at the heart of the Kyoto Protocol. If actual greenhouse gas emissions cannot be measured directly, using dynamic power consumption as an alternative measurement and calculation is also an effective method. In either case, the availability and reliability of measured data are becoming increasingly important as more and more regulations are implemented and economic impacts are generated. As

governments and industries work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the scientific community is also working to more fully understand and model the world's climate, carbon exchange mechanisms, ecological interactions, and the effects of global warming. Complex systems like these require very sophisticated models and simulations, large supercomputer resources, and as accurate benchmark data as possible. For example, researchers at the Center for Embedded Network Sensing (CENS) are using the NI CompactRIO hardware platform to study the dynamic exchange of carbon in a variety of ecosystems (Figure 2). One of the properties of CO2 is that it enhances the greenhouse effect because it absorbs light in the infrared (IR) region. This property can be exploited in a spectral sensor that includes an IR light source, an optical filter, and an IR detector. By tuning the filter to the IR wavelength absorbed by CO2, the IR detector output is proportional to the CO2 concentration. Researchers can easily connect the analog output of this sensor to the voltage input or 4-20 mA current input of a data acquisition system such as CompactRIO.

In terms of sensor use, more and more people are using environmental technology sensors to replace traditional industrial sensor products, such as CO2 detectors using SDI-12 serial interfaces. In addition, many environmental sensors such as CO2 detectors have SDI-12 serial data interfaces, which can be used to connect the sensors to CompactRIO through a simple adapter. Combining CO2 concentration data with gas flow rate measurements, researchers can calculate the actual CO2 flow between and above the forest canopy. Other CompactRIO systems measure CO2 concentration and moisture at multiple locations below the soil surface to find the source of CO2. Grouping of CompactRIO systems uses wireless networks to simultaneously collect and record data from multiple sampling points, extract features for the area being studied, and periodically transmit data to a central online database through wireless feature nodes or WLAN networks.

The ConpacteRIO Global Environmental Atmosphere Monitoring System was developed as a prototype system for the U.S. National Ecological Observatory Network NEON; this is a research project across the American continent and a research and development project funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. The monitoring stations of the National Ecological Observatory use instruments to detect the exchange of CO2 and provide information on the exchange of CO2 and other gases between forests, soils, and the atmosphere, as well as the physical, chemical, and microbiological characteristics of plants, soils, and water bodies. The data will be transmitted to a central processing center and shared with scientists in other parts of the world. Currently, the ComactRIO monitoring system is in use at the La Selva Biological Observatory in the Costa Rican rainforest. It forms a multi-user ecological data center there: scientists can connect CompactRIO to sensors to form a test system for scientific research and experiments in the rainforest. In addition, the CompacteRIO system will also be used in the James San Jacinto Mountain Nature Reserve and the Stunt Ranch Santa Monica Mountain Conservation Station. (end)