August 12, 2018

Environmental Observations via Mountain-top Deployed Sensors - the Santiago Peak Holy Fire Example

In early 2018 the UC San Diego High Performance Wireless Research and Education network partnered with the University of Nevada Reno's ALERTWildfire.org, the Orange County Fire Authority, and Southern California Edison to obtain, install and operate a sensor infrastructure on a Santiago Peak microwave tower for environmental observations. A specific objective was the creation of capabilities to help with the assessment of fire dangers, and the ability to monitor active fires and to respond based on real-time data.

July 3, 2018

Wolf Pups Born at California Wolf Center

Two news releases were provided by the California Wolf Center (CWC) in June 2018 about the birth of two North American gray wolf pups and seven pups of the critically endangered Mexican gray wolves.

CWC is connected to the Internet via HPWREN since January 2004. Applications include the use of web camera feeds to observe wolf behavior and checking on the health of wolves without disturbing these very shy animals. The Wolf Center also participated in HPWREN's Live Interactive Virtual Explorations (LIVE) activities.

May 1, 2018

HPWREN Camera Image Download Overview

Images and videos seen on the various HPWREN camera sites, such as /cameras, are available to the public for download from our archives. Our only requirement for their usage is to provide attribution to HPWREN (https://www.hpwren.ucsd.edu) if images are published. See Acknowledgements and Disclaimer for details.

HPWREN servers capture, process, publish and archive images and videos around the clock (images are captured once per minute, which are converted into videos every three hours). This data is collected from more than a hundred camera image sources around San Diego, Imperial, and Orange County and and we continue to add new cameras.

April 16, 2018

Update on HPWREN Real-time Santa Ana Weather Alerts

An experimental update for real-time weather alerts, based on the original HPWREN implementation from 2004 (/news/041106.html), is now operating on a trial basis. This new version, which utilizes data from HPWREN and SDG&E weather stations, supports multiple profiles, including which sensor thresholds to use, which sensor subset to analyze (or "all"), and which email addresses to send the real-time alerts to. It currently analyzes data every few minutes from usually about 170 weather stations, with an ability to support many analysis profiles.

March 25, 2018

Recognition of HPWREN at the 2018 CENIC Annual Conference

In recognition of work to bring advanced IT and telecommunications to the fight to contain California wildfires, the WIFIRE, HPWREN, and AlertTahoe projects were selected as recipients of the CENIC 2018 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications.

Project leaders recognized included Ilkay Altintas, San Diego Supercomputer Center; John Graham, Qualcomm Institute, University of California San Diego; Graham Kent, Nevada Seismological Laboratory, University of Nevada, Reno; and Frank Vernon, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego (UCSD).

March 15, 2018

Monitoring the Health of the Upper San Diego River

By Trent Biggs, San Diego State University

The Upper San Diego River Watershed is the largest source of local water supply in San Diego County, and its creeks drain into El Capitan Reservoir. The streams and creeks that drain into the Reservoir are relatively healthy but they are under continued threat of degradation from natural and man-made sources. The overall project includes scientific and community engagement activities designed to quantify, protect, and enhance the water quality in the watershed.

February 20, 2018

CENIC Recognizes Technology Projects to Combat California Wildfires

WIFIRE, HPWREN, AlertTahoe Projects Win 2018 Innovations in Networking Awards

Reprinted with permission of a SDSC press release

Two University of California San Diego projects, along with a complementary University of Nevada, Reno project, have been selected as recipients of the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) 2018 Innovations in Networking Award for Experimental Applications in recognition of work advancing IT and telecommunications technologies to help minimize potential damage caused by wildfires.

February 18, 2018

HPWREN Relay Site Damaged by High Winds

On January 28, 2018 a significant Santa Ana condition impacted San Diego County, and with it came substantial damage at about 10:08 AM to the Big Black Mountain relay site east of Ramona. The relay supports a link to the HPWREN backbone site on Mount Woodson, and connects a firefighting agency site. A set of 360 degree cameras, a PTZ camera, and a meteorological sensor set are also mounted to the solar-powered relay.

February 15, 2018

HPWREN Accomplishments in 2017

HPWREN team members have had a busy year. In addition to our normal ongoing infrastructure maintenance, and more intensive around the clock support for our emergency responders during wildfires, we have accomplished numerous upgrades to our equipment and expansions of our services. Below is a summary of these 2017 activities (from our logs, monitors, trouble tickets and 140 field service reports).

January 26, 2018

"Where is the fire?"

Near real time HPWREN web-accessible camera views of panoramic vistas of mountains and valleys now available via Google Earth

Living in a fire prone area of Southern California, most of us have encountered seeing a dark plume billowing over a mountain in the distance at one time or another, always wondering, where is the fire? HPWREN's web-accessible cameras are covering a considerable portion of San Diego and parts of Riverside counties, as well as one location in Santa Barbara county. They show panoramic views of mountains and valleys, often aiding in locating a fire and assessing the fire's progress by knowing where the camera is pointed at.

January 24, 2018

San Diego County Invests in New UC San Diego Fire Detection Networking

Higher-speed Network, New Cameras Expand County's Response Capabilities

The County of San Diego Board of Supervisors voted this week to approve an investment in system technology developed at the University of California San Diego that will improve the County's fire detection and response capabilities. The County's investment will result in the addition of new cameras and a boost in the network performance of hazard detection technology developed by the university.