The Status and Future of Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) in Operational Meteorology

Pinto, James O.; O’Sullivan, Debbie; Taylor, Stewart W.; Elston, Jack; Baker, C. Bruce; Hotz, David; Marshall, Curtis H.; Jacob, Jamey; Bärfuss, Konrad; Piguet, Bruno; Roberts, Greg; Omanovic, Nadja; Fengler, Martin; Jensen, Anders A.; Steiner, Matthias; Houston, Adam L.

doi:10.1175/bams-d-20-0138.1

Cited by 18 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The drone also estimated wind speed and direction based on the power needed to maintain its flight path. Overall, the drone's performance in the present study adds to the growing evidence of the value of drones for in situ meteorological data collection [36,55,56]. Using drones to improve weather forecasts also has substantial public support [57].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

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

Eckert,

Monteforte,

Harrison

et al. 2023

Drones

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Understanding the atmospheric conditions in remote areas contributes to assessing local weather phenomena. Obtaining vertical profiles of the atmosphere in isolated locations can introduce significant challenges for the deployment and maintenance of equipment, as well as regulatory obstacles. Here, we assessed the potential of consumer drones equipped with lightweight atmospheric sensors to collect vertical meteorological profiles off One Tree Island (Great Barrier Reef), located approximately 85 km off the east coast of Australia. We used a DJI Matrice 300 drone with two InterMet Systems iMet-XQ2 UAV sensors, capturing data on atmospheric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, and wind up to an altitude of 1500 m. These flights were conducted three times per day (9 a.m., 12 noon, and 3 p.m.) and compared against ground-based weather sensors. Over the Austral summer/autumn, we completed 72 flights, obtaining 24 complete sets of daily measurements of atmospheric characteristics over the entire vertical profile. On average, the atmospheric temperature and dewpoint temperature were significantly influenced by the time of sampling, and also varied among days. The mean daily temperature and dewpoint temperature reached their peaks at 3 p.m., with the temperature gradually rising from its morning low. The mean dewpoint temperature obtained its lowest point around noon. We also observed wind speed variations, but changes in patterns throughout the day were much less consistent. The drone-mounted atmospheric sensors exhibited a consistent warm bias in temperature compared to the reference weather station. Relative humidity showed greater variability with no clear bias pattern, indicating potential limitations in the humidity sensor’s performance. Microscale temperature inversions were prevalent around 1000 m, peaking around noon and present in approximately 27% of the profiles. Overall, the drone-based vertical profiles helped characterise atmospheric dynamics around One Tree Island Reef and demonstrated the utility of consumer drones in providing cost-effective meteorological information in remote, environmentally sensitive areas.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 54%

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

Eckert,

Monteforte,

Harrison

et al. 2023

Drones

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“…More recently, UASs have been explored and evaluated as viable platforms for lower atmospheric measurements [ 22 ] including the use of UASs for systematic meteorological sounding [ 23 ]. Several sUAS platforms for meteorological sounding have been reported more recently in the literature [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ]. Likely the most developed of these is the CopterSonde [ 27 ] which has a highly integrated measurement system with custom firmware and telemetry for reporting data back to the ground station in real time, as well as integrated software that keeps the sUAS pointed into the wind and reports wind speed and direction based on the inertial measurement unit feedback with an aspirated, shielded set of sensors.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Testing of a Rocket-Based Sensor for Atmospheric Sensing Using an Unmanned Aerial System

Thalman

2024

Sensors

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Measurements of the vertical structure of the lower atmosphere are important to the understanding of air quality. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs, drones) can provide low cost, repeatable measurements of the temperature, pressure, and relative humidity. A set of inexpensive sensors controlled with an Arduino microprocessor board were tested on a UAS against a meteorology grade sensor. Two modes of operation for sampling were tested: a forward moving sampler and a vertical ascent sampler. A small particle sensor (Sensiron SPS30) was integrated and was capable of retrieving vertical aerosol distributions during an inversion event. The thermocouple-based temperature probe and the relative humidity measurement on the Bosch BME280 sensor correlated well with the meteorological sensor. The temperature and relative humidity sensors were then deployed on a rocket sounding platform. The rocket sounding system performed well up to a height of 400 m. The inexpensive sensors were found to perform adequately for low-cost development and uses in education and research.

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“…As a consequence of the rapid development in the field of uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) over the last two decades, drones have also found their way as flexible, mobile, and cost-efficient sensor carriers in atmospheric research [19][20][21]. The commercial availability of corresponding airframes with sufficient payload capacities and the accessibility of freely programmable open-source autopilot solutions make UAVs now also well-suited as sensor platforms for atmospheric turbulence measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Experimental Characterization of Propeller-Induced Flow (PIF) below a Multi-Rotor UAV

Flem,

Ghirardelli,

Kral

et al. 2024

Atmosphere

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The availability of multi-rotor UAVs with lifting capacities of several kilograms allows for a new paradigm in atmospheric measurement techniques, i.e., the integration of research-grade sonic anemometers for airborne turbulence measurements. With their ability to hover and move very slowly, this approach yields unrevealed flexibility compared to mast-based sonic anemometers for a wide range of boundary layer investigations that require an accurate characterization of the turbulent flow. For an optimized sensor placement, potential disturbances by the propeller-induced flow (PIF) must be considered. The PIF characterization can be done by CFD simulations, which, however, require validation. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment to map the PIF below a multi-rotor drone using a mobile array of five sonic anemometers. To achieve measurements in a controlled environment, the drone was mounted inside a hall at a 90° angle to its usual flying orientation, thus leading to the development of a horizontal downwash, which is not subject to a pronounced ground effect. The resulting dataset maps the PIF parallel to the rotor plane from two rotor diameters, beneath, to 10 D, and perpendicular to the rotor plane from the center line of the downwash to a distance of 3 D. This measurement strategy resulted in a detailed three-dimensional picture of the downwash below the drone in high spatial resolution. The experimental results show that the PIF quickly decreases with increasing distance from the centerline of the downwash in the direction perpendicular to the rotor plane. At a distance of 1 D from the centerline, the PIF reduced to less than 4 ms−1 within the first 5 D beneath the drone, and no conclusive disturbance was measured at 2 D out from the centerline. A PIF greater than 4 ms−1 was still observed along the center of the downwash at a distance of 10 D for both throttle settings tested (35% and 45%). Within the first 4 D under the rotor plane, flow convergence towards the center of the downwash was measured before changing to diverging, causing the downwash to expand. This coincides with the transition from the four individual downwash cores into a single one. The turbulent velocity fluctuations within the downwash were found to be largest towards the edges, where the shear between the PIF and the stagnant surrounding air is the largest.

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The Status and Future of Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) in Operational Meteorology

Abstract: CapsuleSmall weather-sensing Uncrewed Aircraft Systems are becoming reliable and accurate enough to be considered as a cost-effective solution for filling observational gaps that could enhance National Meteorological and Hydrological Services around the world.

Cited by 18 publications

References 57 publications

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

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

Development and Testing of a Rocket-Based Sensor for Atmospheric Sensing Using an Unmanned Aerial System

Experimental Characterization of Propeller-Induced Flow (PIF) below a Multi-Rotor UAV

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