The Small Unmanned Meteorological Observer SUMO: A new tool for atmospheric boundary layer research

Reuder, Joachim; Brisset, Pascal; Jonassen, Marius Müller; Mayer, Stephanie

doi:10.1127/0941-2948/2009/0363

Cited by 123 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…In atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) research, systems like SUMO (Reuder et al, 2009) for vertical sounding of the atmosphere, or the M 2 AV (Spieß et al, 2007;Martin et al, 2011), which is additionally capable of measuring turbulent fluxes of sensible heat and individual turbulent outbursts like entrainment , have become valuable instruments for data collection. Also outside Europe similar systems are operated, as presented in Thomas et al (2012) and Bonin et al (2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MASC – a small Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for wind energy research

Wildmann¹,

Hofsäß

Weimer

et al. 2014

Adv. Sci. Res.

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Abstract.Originally designed for atmospheric boundary layer research, the MASC (Multipurpose Airborne Sensor Carrier) RPA (Remotely Piloted Aircraft, also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, UAV) is capable of making in-situ measurements of temperature, humidity and wind in high resolution and precision. The autopilot system ROCS (Research Onboard Computer System) enables the aircraft to fly pre-defined routes between waypoints at constant altitude and airspeed. The system manages to operate in wind speeds up to 15 m s −1 safely. It is shown that a MASC can fly as close as one rotor diameter upstream and downstream of running wind turbines at these wind speeds and take valuable data of incoming flow and wake. The flexible operation of an RPA at the size of a MASC can be a major advantage of the system compared to tower measurements and remote sensing in wind energy research. In the project "Lidar Complex" comparisons of RPA measurements with lidar systems and tower measurements are carried out at two different test sites. First results, including turbulence and wake measurements, from a campaign in autumn 2013 are presented.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MASC – a small Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for wind energy research

Wildmann¹,

Hofsäß

Weimer

et al. 2014

Adv. Sci. Res.

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“…Nevertheless, numerous different systems have been developed within the last decade and have proved to produce valuable data (Martin and Bange, 2013;Martin et al, 2011;Reuder et al, 2009;Spiess et al, 2007;Dias et al, 2012;van den Kroonenberg et al, 2008). In general, the possibilities for meteorological measurements with small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) are in between manned aircraft measurements and radiosonde soundings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Two fast temperature sensors for probing of the atmospheric boundary layer using small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)

Wildmann¹,

Mauz²,

Bange³

2013

Atmos. Meas. Tech.

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Two types of temperature sensors are designed and tested: a thermocouple and a fine wire resistance thermometer. The intention of this study is to figure out which kind of measurement principle is in general more suited for atmospheric boundary layer meteorology with small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA). The sensors are calibrated in a NIST traceable climate chamber and validated in flight against tower measurements, radiosondes and remote sensing. The sensors have a measurement range of at least −10–50 °C, an absolute RMS error of less than ±0.2 K which is stable over the lifetime of the sensors, and a resolution of about 0.01 K. Both devices are tested for typical errors like radiation error and adiabatic heating, as well as for their dynamic response. Spectral resolutions of up to approximately 10 Hz can be obtained with both sensors, which makes them suitable for turbulence measurement. Their low cost of less than 100 EUR in pure hardware is a major advantage for research with small RPA

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“…Esja was explored with RPAS, which is a small, remotely piloted, aircraft system, capable of observing profiles of temperature, humidity and winds in the lower 3Á4 km of the atmosphere. A detailed description of the system is given in Reuder et al (2009), who also report on tests of the system in the Arctic near Svalbard, also presented in Mayer et al (2012a). Prior to the MOSO-project, the RPAS was tested extensively in Iceland during the FLOHOF-experiment (Flow over and around Hofsjo¨kull) at the Hofsjo¨kull ice cap in the central Icelandic highlands .…”

Section: Observational Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The novel observations used as additional model forcing were made aloft with a small unmanned meteorological observer (SUMO), also referred to as a remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS, Reuder et al, 2009), described further in the next section. Here, we analyse observations from the MOSO-project, made with the RPAS on 15 July 2009 in the lee of Mt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of assimilating data from a remotely piloted aircraft on simulations of weak-wind orographic flow

Ágústsson

Ólafsson

Jonassen

et al. 2014

Tellus A: Dynamic Meteorology and Oceanography

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A B S T R A C T Orographic winds near a 914 m high mountain in Southwest-Iceland are explored using unique observations made aloft with a small remotely piloted aircraft, as well as with traditional observations and high-resolution atmospheric simulations. There was an inversion well above mountain top level at about 2 km with weak winds below. Observed winds in the lee of the mountain were indicative of flow locally enhanced by wave activity aloft. Winds descended along the lee slope with a prevailing direction away from the mountain. They were relatively strong and gusty at the surface close to the mountain, with a maximum at low levels, and weakening and becoming more diffuse a short distance further downstream. The winds weakened further aloft, with a minimum on average near mountain top level. This situation is reproduced in a high-resolution atmospheric simulation forced with atmospheric analysis as well as with the observed lee-side profiles of wind and temperature below 1.4 km. Without the additional observations consisting of the lee-side profiles, the model fails to reproduce the winds aloft as well as at the surface in a region in the lee of the mountain, as was also the case for the operational numerical models at that time. A sensitivity simulation indicates that this poor performance is a result of the poorly captured strength and sharpness of the inversion aloft. The study illustrates, firstly, that even at very low wind speed, in a close to neutral low-level flow, gravity waves may still be a dominating feature of the flow. Secondly, the study presents an example of the usefulness of lee-side atmospheric profiles, retrieved by simple model aircraft, for improving numerical simulations and short-term weather forecasting in the vicinity of mountains. Thirdly, the study confirms the sensitivity of downslope flow to only moderate change in the sharpness of an upstream inversion.

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The Small Unmanned Meteorological Observer SUMO: A new tool for atmospheric boundary layer research

Cited by 123 publications

References 6 publications

MASC – a small Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for wind energy research

MASC – a small Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) for wind energy research

Two fast temperature sensors for probing of the atmospheric boundary layer using small remotely piloted aircraft (RPA)

The impact of assimilating data from a remotely piloted aircraft on simulations of weak-wind orographic flow

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