Current and Future Uses of UAS for Improved Forecasts/Warnings and Scientific Studies

McFarquhar, Greg M.; Smith, Emily A.; Pillar-Little, Elizabeth A.; Brewster, Keith; Chilson, Phillip B.; Lee, Temple R.; Waugh, Sean; Yussouf, Nusrat; Wang, Xuguang; Xue, Ming; Boer, Gijs de; Gibbs, Jeremy A.; Fiebrich, Chris; Baker, Bruce L.; Brotzge, Jerald A.; Carr, Frederick H.; Christophersen, Hui; Fengler, Martin; Hall, Philip; Hock, Terry; Houston, Adam L.; Huck, R. W.; Jacob, Jamey; Palmer, Robert D.; Quinn, Patricia K.; Wagner, Melissa; Zhang, Yan Rockee; Hawk, Darren

doi:10.1175/bams-d-20-0015.1

Cited by 11 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In addition to reliability and efficiency, the accuracy of wind, temperature, and humidity measurements obtained with WxUAS is now comparable to that of calibrated tower and radiosonde measurements (e.g., Leuenberger et al 2020;Bell et al 2020) with the consistency of observational errors also improving (Barbieri et al 2019). These attributes, coupled with decreasing costs of UAS production, operation, and maintenance, are making WxUAS an economically viable option for use by NMHS to fill observational data voids (e.g., McFarquhar et al 2020).…”

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confidence: 77%

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

Pinto

O’Sullivan

Taylor

et al. 2021

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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confidence: 77%

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

Pinto

O’Sullivan

Taylor

et al. 2021

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

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“…Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS) or drones are often presented as an opportunity to fill the observational gap in the boundary layer [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. The World Meteorological Organization recognized the potential of drones and will organize a demonstration campaign in 2024 [12,13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Hervo,

Romanens,

Martucci

et al. 2023

Atmosphere

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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.

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“…Despite improvements in recent years, satellite retrievals of boundary layer profiles and fog characteristics remain insufficient due to their coarse vertical resolution (> 1 km) and poor spatial coverage (Wulfmeyer et al, 2015;Wu et al, 2015;Wilcox, 2017;Yi et al, 2019). Surface-based in-situ measurements are limited by a maximum height (usually less than 50 m), while radiosonde profiles are spatially and temporally sparse and resource intensive, and the development of a coordinated, unmanned aerial system profiling platform is still in its infancy (Jacob et al, 2018;McFarquhar et al, 2020). Active ground-based remote sensors, such as differential absorption lidars (DIALs), can produce accurate thermodynamic profiles with a high temporal resolution but have a typical lowest range gate of greater than 50 m, making them unsuitable for fog monitoring (Newsom et al, 2020;Stillwell et al, 2020;Turner and Lohnert, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Passive ground-based remote sensing of radiation fog

et al. 2022

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Abstract. Accurate boundary layer temperature and humidity profiles are crucial for successful forecasting of fog, and accurate retrievals of liquid water path are important for understanding the climatological significance of fog. Passive ground-based remote sensing systems such as microwave radiometers (MWRs) and infrared spectrometers like the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI), which measures spectrally resolved infrared radiation (3.3 to 19.2 µm), can retrieve both thermodynamic profiles and liquid water path. Both instruments are capable of long-term unattended operation and have the potential to support operational forecasting. Here we compare physical retrievals of boundary layer thermodynamic profiles and liquid water path during 12 cases of thin (LWP<40 g m−2) supercooled radiation fog from an MWR and an AERI collocated in central Greenland. We compare both sets of retrievals to in-situ measurements from radiosondes and surface-based temperature and humidity sensors. The retrievals based on AERI observations accurately capture shallow surface-based temperature inversions (0–10 m a.g.l.) with lapse rates of up to −1.2 ∘C m−1, whereas the strength of the surface-based temperature inversions retrieved from MWR observations alone are uncorrelated with in-situ measurements, highlighting the importance of constraining MWR thermodynamic profile retrievals with accurate surface meteorological data. The retrievals based on AERI observations detect fog onset (defined by a threshold in liquid water path) earlier than those based on MWR observations by 25 to 185 min. We propose that, due to the high sensitivity of the AERI instrument to near-surface temperature and small changes in liquid water path, the AERI (or an equivalent infrared spectrometer) could be a useful instrument for improving fog monitoring and nowcasting, particularly for cases of thin radiation fog under otherwise clear skies, which can have important radiative impacts at the surface.

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Current and Future Uses of UAS for Improved Forecasts/Warnings and Scientific Studies

Cited by 11 publications

References 10 publications

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

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

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

Passive ground-based remote sensing of radiation fog

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