Los Alamos National Laboratory helps monitor, predict, and mitigate crop-damaging frost events

Los Alamos National Laboratory is applying its combined expertise in data collection, hydro-meteorological data analysis, wireless sensor temperature monitoring, edge-to-cloud data monitoring capabilities, and machine learning to assist area farmers’ efforts to monitor, predict, and mitigate crop-damaging frost events in northern New Mexico site. The work involves:

• Analyzing temperature distribution and vulnerabilities to frost across farm sites, and attempting to identify sources of cold air using drone-based observations and/or data driven models.
• Investigating machine-learning models for processing collected data for temperature and frost prediction.
• Applying machine-learning models and algorithms in the Cloud-HOsted Real-time Data Services (CHORDS) online web application system for real-time testing of temperature and frost predictions.
• Investigating and, if feasible within time and funding constraints, implementing improvements for strengthening Wi-Fi signal at farms.
• Continuing bud-frost experiments performed in previous years by re-examining peach, apricot and cherry bud response to cold temperatures in an experimental setting. Expand this work to apple and grape buds, pending feasibility and time constraints.

LA-UR-21-29096