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  ASM 2003

2003 LTER Site Byte

LTER Site: Virginia Coast Reserve

Contributor: John Porter (Sep 11, 2003)

Site Byte:

This has been a busy year for behind-the-scenes restructuring of the information system at the VCR/LTER. We are moving from two older Sun computers (one running the web server, one running a SQL database) to a single, but much faster, Sun Blade 2000 system running a newer version of Solaris. This means recompiling or porting all the tools we have accumulated over the years and also searching for replacements for some capabilities that will make our job easier in the future. Although we won't be able to accomplish the shift all at one time, we are moving to use open source software such as PHP for web scripting, that were not available during our last major system rebuild.

We have also been very active in trying to improve the ways available for retrieving data from the field. Our wireless LAN now extends to both ends of Hog Island (22 km from our lab, with 8 km between nodes on the island), to Chimney Pole Marsh (another 1.5 km) and to various equipment (such as meteorological stations) within the island itself. A major user of the wireless network has been a project funded by the Virginia Environmental Endowment which uses live webcams to present and capture imagery of VCR/LTER research sites. You can see information on these projects at http://www.VCRLTER.virginia.edu/wwwcam and http://ecocam.evsc.virginia.edu.