The Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory (USRL): A New Facility for UAV-Based Atmospheric Observations

Abstract

The Unmanned Systems Research Laboratory (USRL) of the Cyprus Institute is a new mobile exploratory platform of the EU Research Infrastructure Aerosol, Clouds and Trace Gases Research InfraStructure (ACTRIS). USRL offers exclusive Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-sensor solutions that can be deployed anywhere in Europe and beyond, e.g., during intensive field campaigns through a transnational access scheme in compliance with the drone regulation set by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the research, innovation, and training. UAV sensor systems play a growing role in the portfolio of Earth observation systems. They can provide cost-effective, spatial in-situ atmospheric observations which are complementary to stationary observation networks. They also have strong potential for calibrating and validating remote-sensing sensors and retrieval algorithms, mapping close-to-the-ground emission point sources and dispersion plumes, and evaluating the performance of atmospheric models. They can provide unique information relevant to the short- and long-range transport of gas and aerosol pollutants, radiative forcing, cloud properties, emission factors and a variety of atmospheric parameters. Since its establishment in 2015, USRL is participating in major international research projects dedicated to (1) the better understanding of aerosol-cloud interactions, (2) the profiling of aerosol optical properties in different atmospheric environments, (3) the vertical distribution of air pollutants in and above the planetary boundary layer, (4) the validation of Aeolus satellite dust products by utilizing novel UAV-balloon-sensor systems, and (5) the chemical characterization of ship and stack emissions. A comprehensive overview of the new UAV-sensor systems developed by USRL and their field deployments is presented here. This paper aims to illustrate the strong scientific potential of UAV-borne measurements in the atmospheric sciences and the need for their integration in Earth observation networks.

A review of coarse mineral dust in the Earth system

“…Renard et al (2018) frequently observed particles sized larger than 40 μm at concentrations above 10 -4 cm -3 at a distance from source regions. Other instruments, such as the Universal Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (UCASS, Smith et al, 2019), a lightweight OPC which can be deployed on radiosondes, dropsondes or UAVs to measure size distributions between optical diameters between 0.4 to 17 μm have also been developed and show promising results (Kezoudi et al, 2021a(Kezoudi et al, , 2021b.…”

Lidar, Ceilometer and Drone-Borne Aerosol Profiling during the EVIAN 2022 Campaign in Cyprus

“…POPS uses a 405 nm diode laser and measures aerosol number concentration in the diameter range from 0.14 to 3 µm. A dryer is attached to the inlet of the instrument when the UAV-POPS system flies inside humid environments (with RH > 50%) [8]. Compared with reference instruments, groundbased and UAV observations of POPS have shown that POPS can provide scientific quality data and reliable vertical profiles of particle size distribution and mass concentration [9].…”

Observing Mineral Dust in Northern Africa, the Middle East, and Europe: Current Capabilities and Challenges ahead for the Development of Dust Services

“…A potential solution for filling this observational gap is the development of Lower-Cost Medium Precision (LCMP) instruments, as the zenith looking narrow-band radiometer (Almansa et al 2017(Almansa et al , 2020, with no mobile parts, specifically designed to measure desert dust, and land low-cost sensors operated by national weather services or even transportable on unmanned vehicles or drones (e.g., Morys et al 2001;Guirado et al 2014; http://www. calitoo.fr; Pikridas et al 2019;Kezoudi et al 2021). These instruments could benefit from more advanced instrumentation for testing, validation, and quality assessment (Giordano et al 2021).…”