Evaluation of an Automatic Meteorological Drone Based on a 6-Month Measurement Campaign

Abstract

From December 2021 to May 2022, MeteoSwiss and Meteomatics conducted a proof of concept to demonstrate the capability of automatic drones to provide data of sufficient quality and reliability on a routine operational basis. Over 6 months, Meteodrones MM-670 were operated automatically eight times per night at Payerne, Switzerland. In total, 864 meteorological profiles were measured and compared to co-located standard measurements, including radiosoundings and remote sensing instruments. To our knowledge, this is the first time that Meteodrone’s atmospheric profiles have been evaluated in such an extensive campaign. The paper highlights two case studies that showcase the performance and challenges of measuring temperature, humidity, and wind with a Meteodrone. It also focuses on the overall quality of the drone measurements. Throughout the campaign, the availability of Meteodrone measurements was 75.7%, with 82.2% of the flights reaching the nominal altitude of 2000 m above sea level. The quality of the measurements was assessed against the WMO’s (World Meteorological Organization) requirements. The temperature measurements gathered by the Meteodrone met the “breakthrough” target, while the humidity and wind profiles met the “threshold” target for high-resolution numerical weather prediction. The temperature measurement quality was comparable to that of a microwave radiometer, and the humidity quality was similar to that obtained from a Raman LiDAR. However, the wind measurements gathered by a Doppler LiDAR were more accurate than the estimation provided by the Meteodrone. This campaign marks a significant step towards the operational use of automatic drones for meteorological applications.

Exploring Meteorological Conditions and Microscale Temperature Inversions above the Great Barrier Reef through Drone-Based Measurements

“…Nonetheless, a fully autonomous drone mission flying into airspace accessible to crewed aircraft would also require significant risk mitigations to comply with airspace regulations in many countries including at our Great Barrier Reef site. Exploring this direction could offer an affordable alternative for research purposes compared to more expensive specialised systems and crew [70].…”

Drone-Based Vertical Atmospheric Temperature Profiling in Urban Environments

“…Nonetheless, aircraft usually fly on predefined routes, especially during the initial climb and approach phases, which limits the spatial data availability to a narrow strip aligned with the runway, especially close to the ground. Several studies [4,7,11,[13][14][15][16][17][18] advocate for the adoption of UASs for in situ atmospheric probing, highlighting their cost-effectiveness, mobility, and reusability.…”

“…Hervo et al [18] have published the results of a campaign in which atmospheric measurements from a Meteodrone MM-670 (flight time: ~22 min, diameter: 70 cm, weight: 5 kg), a hexacopter manufactured by Meteomatics, were compared to measurements taken by a weather balloon-tethered radiosonde (RS41 by Vaisala) as well as remote sensing equipment (microwave radiometer, Raman lidar). The UAS was launched every hour between 20:00 and 04:00 UTC during working days, while the sonde was launched every day at 11:00 and 23:00 UTC.…”

“…To summarize, the temperature measurement methods include continuous ascent and descent [1,4,11,17,18,23], which enables averaging between the ascent and descent and decreases the inertial errors. This seems to be the dominant method in temperature profile collection.…”