Performance Comparison of AWS IoT Connected Dataloggers in Glacier Environments: Campbell CR1000X vs. ESP32 Open Source

Abstract

Monitoring hydrometeorological conditions in highmountain areas is crucial for understanding and mitigating theimpacts of climate change. This study addresses the developmentand implementation of both commercial and open-source data-loggers for weather monitoring in these environments. Througha review of the hardware and software used, we present thetools employed in the development of the study, along with thenetwork infrastructure that connects the city of Huaraz withLake Palcacocha, enabling internet access, as well as the IoTnetwork design for each datalogger. The commercial dataloggerwas configured according to the manufacturer’s guidelines, es-tablishing secure MQTT communication with AWS IoT Core.On the other hand, the open-source datalogger required thedevelopment of custom scripts in the Arduino IDE, incorporatingWiFi and MQTT libraries, and overcoming challenges relatedto network reconnection and data integrity. Field experimentsdemonstrated high data transmission efficiency (commercial:99.68%, open-source: 99.69%). Although the open-source data-logger required code tuning to achieve performance comparableto the commercial version, it proved viable as an open-sourcesolution for high-altitude monitoring. Compatibility with AWSIoT Core enabled real-time data visualization, storage, andenhanced responsiveness to extreme weather events.Keywords—ESP32 Datalogger, AWS IoT Core, MQTT Proto-col, High Mountain, Climate Surveillanc