Abstract. Gaining information on climatic conditions in subway tunnels is the key to
predicting the propagation of smoke or toxic gases in these infrastructures
in the case of a fire or a terrorist attack. As anemometer measurements are
not economically suitable, the employment of alternative monitoring methods
is necessary. High-resolution temperature sensing with Raman optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR) using
optical communication fiber cables shows great potential as it allows the
surveillance of several kilometers of underground transport facilities
without the need for installing sensing equipment in the tunnels. This paper
presents first results of a study using this approach for monitoring subway
tunnels. In the Berlin subway, temperature data gathered from newly installed
as well as pre-installed communication cables were evaluated and compared to
reference data from temperature loggers. Results are very promising as high
correlations between all data can be achieved showing the potential of this
approach.