Influence of Meteorological Processes on the Verticality of Electric Fields.

Hill, M. L.

doi:10.21236/ada111549

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…This is likely related to the aircraft's fuselage charging up more within the ABL than above it, which leads to an increased influence of the aircraft's motion on the charge sensors. A similar effect was reported by Hill (1982), who demonstrated that the gradient of the relationship between the bank angle of their UAS and E-field was steeper at 2000 ft than 6000 ft. Thus, flying above the ABL, rather than below it, is also advantageous to minimize the effects of aircraft movement on charge measurements.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

“…Technological developments are leading to more meteorological measurements from UAS (e.g., Pinto et al 2021). Examples of UAS measurements in atmospheric electricity include the development of an "electrostatic autopilot" (Hill 1972(Hill , 1982, as well as the miniature E-field sensor measurements of Bateman et al (2007) In this work, we describe two types of measurement, made from a small fixed-wing UAS, model MASC-3. Its small size means that it is not feasible to carry a large number of E-field sensors as per the common approach used on larger aircraft.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Fair-Weather Atmospheric Charge Measurements with a Small UAS

Schön

Nicoll

Büchau

et al. 2022

Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology

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Atmospheric electricity measurements made from small unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are rare but are of increasing interest to the atmospheric science community due to the information that they can provide about aerosol and turbulence characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL). Here we present the first analysis of a new data set of space charge and meteorology measurements made from the small, electric, fixed-wing UAS model MASC-3. Two distinct experiments are discussed: (1) Flights past a 99 m metal tower to test the response of the charge sensor to a fixed distortion of the electric field caused by the geometry of the tower. Excellent agreement is found between the charge sensor response from the MASC-3 and modeled electric field around the tower. (2) Vertical profiles up to an altitude of 2500 m to study the evolution of the ABL with the time of day. These flights demonstrated close agreement between the space charge profiles and temperature, relative humidity, and turbulence parameters, as would be expected on a fair-weather day with summertime convection. Maximum values of space charge measured were of order 70 pC m−3, comparable with other measurements in the literature from balloon platforms. These measurements demonstrate the suitability of small UAS for atmospheric electrical measurements, provided that care is taken over the choice of aircraft platform, sensor placement, minimization of electrical interference, and careful choice of the flight path. Such aircraft are typically more cost-effective than manned aircraft and are being increasingly used for atmospheric science purposes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%