What Does a Nation-Wide Digital Nervous System Use for an Operating System?

Concerns over climate change and sustainable agriculture have made nation-wide high resolution environment monitoring and modelling desirable. Recent developments in technology have made it affordable. An environment modelling network is a supercomputer, but not of a familiar kind. Conventional supercomputing approaches are appropriate for the modelling aspect, but not the monitoring aspect. While sensor networks are familiar in the Internet of Things (IoT), geographically remote sensors without access to mains power have harsher resource constraints than, say, internet-ready light bulbs. A “two-realm” approach to system software is needed.