Satellite uplinks would replace the twice-yearly drive to collect western NSW forest data

A logger in the far west of New South Wales already samples soil moisture, microclimate, tree growth and plant water stress continuously ^[6]. Getting the numbers off it is the hard part. In many of these locations there is no practical way to transmit data, so it has to be fetched by hand, and in practice that happens about twice a year ^[7]. The sites are a long way from towns, roads and telecommunications infrastructure ^[8]. Two visits a year puts roughly six months between downloads, which means a heat wave in November can go unread until the following autumn ^[9].

The satellites in this design are radios. The authors say they are using the communication abilities of low Earth orbit spacecraft so sensors can report from regions with no mobile phone coverage ^[10]. Satellite communication itself has existed for decades ^[18]. The newer part is that low Earth orbit systems let small, low-power environmental sensors transmit more efficiently and at lower cost than before, according to the authors ^[12]. The article does not report per-sensor cost, data rates, plot counts, or what would count as a successful demonstration ^[19].

On imagery the authors are careful. Pictures from space are valuable for tracking logging or illegal roads, they write, and then: "But photos aren't enough. We still need to take measurements on the ground." ^[11] The ground measurements are the four the sensors already take ^[6].

Everything wider depends on the demonstration. The authors say that if the western New South Wales project works, it could be expanded across the state or the entire country ^[5]. The far west is a defensible place to try it, because sensors there sit in areas highly exposed to climate extremes ^[21]. The questions the authors want to reach are whether forests are becoming more vulnerable to drought, how quickly ecosystems recover after fire, and how much carbon forests and woodlands store ^[3].