University of Kentucky measurements of wind, temperature, pressure and humidity in support of LAPSE-RATE using multisite fixed-wing and rotorcraft unmanned aerial systems

Abstract

Abstract. In July 2018, unmanned aerial systems (UASs) were deployed to measure the properties of the lower atmosphere within the San Luis Valley, an elevated valley in Colorado, USA, as part of the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation – a Remotely-piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE). Measurement objectives included detailing boundary layer transition, canyon cold-air drainage and convection initiation within the valley. Details of the contribution to LAPSE-RATE made by the University of Kentucky are provided here, which include measurements by seven different fixed-wing and rotorcraft UASs totaling over 178 flights with validated data. The data from these coordinated UAS flights consist of thermodynamic and kinematic variables (air temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and direction) and include vertical profiles up to 900 m above the ground level and horizontal transects up to 1500 m in length. These measurements have been quality controlled and are openly available in the Zenodo LAPSE-RATE community data repository (https://zenodo.org/communities/lapse-rate/, last access: 23 July 2020), with the University of Kentucky data available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3701845 (Bailey et al., 2020).

Data generated during the 2018 LAPSE-RATE campaign: an introduction and overview

“…Specific examples of difficult-to-observe areas that have been sampled using UASs include in tropical cyclones (e.g., Cione et al, 2016Cione et al, , 2019, over the Arctic Ocean (e.g., Curry et al, 2004), in distant Antarctic regimes (e.g. Knuth et al, 2013), during a total solar eclipse (Bailey, et al, 2019), and in and around supercell thunderstorms (e.g., Elston et al, 2011). Beyond the PBL, data gathered by UASs have shed light on interactions between the atmosphere and other components of the Earth system (e.g., oceans, ice, land surface), with campaigns covering both lower latitudes (e.g., Corrigan et al, 2006;Ramanathan et al, 2007;van den Kroonenberg et al, 2008;Houston et al, 2012) and higher latitudes (e.g., Curry et al, 2004;Cassano et al, 2010;Knuth and Cassano, 2014;Kral et al, 2018).…”

Observations of the thermodynamic and kinematic state of the atmospheric boundary layer over the San Luis Valley, CO, using the CopterSonde 2 remotely piloted aircraft system in support of the LAPSE-RATE field campaign

“…dars, AERI, radiometer) and in situ (radiosondes, Mobile Mesonet) sensors (Bell et al, 2020b; de Boer et al, 2020c) as well as remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPASs, also commonly referred to as uncrewed aircraft systems, UASs). Additionally, the colocation of so many teams with diverse systems provided a unique opportunity to undertake an intensive comparison of the sensing capabilities of the aerial systems being utilized as a part of the campaign (de Boer et al, 2020b;Barbieri et al, 2019). It also provided an opportunity to assess the accuracy of weather forecasts that were provided by NCAR to the team as a part of the campaign (Glasheen et al, 2020;Pinto et al, 2020).…”

“…In 2016, these studies expanded to encompass sensor placement and measurement optimization (Greene et al, 2018), system design and evaluation (Segales et al, 2020a), and sensor integration (Greene et al, 2019) due in large part to the CLOUD-MAP project which facilitated the development of RPASs for the explicit purpose of conducting atmospheric measurements (Jacob et al, 2018). The capabilities of these weather-sensing RPASs have been demonstrated in a variety of collaborative field campaigns Jacob et al, 2018;Koch et al, 2018;Kral et al, 2020), calibration and validation experiments (Barbieri et al, 2019), and careful comparison against other remote sensing networks (Bell et al, 2020a).…”

“…6 will provide concluding remarks as future outlooks regarding the future applications of the dataset. For details regarding OU's contribution to the sensor intercomparison efforts, readers are directed to Barbieri et al (2019). More information regarding the overall campaign such as information surrounding the synoptic conditions, community engagement efforts, and campaign objectives can be found in de Boer et al (2020s) and de Boer et al (2020b).…”

“…More information regarding the overall campaign such as information surrounding the synoptic conditions, community engagement efforts, and campaign objectives can be found in de Boer et al (2020s) and de Boer et al (2020b). Finally, material outlining the contribution of the other participating institutions can be found in this special issue (Bailey et al, 2020;Bell et al, 2020b;Brus et al, 2020;de Boer et al, 2020c;Pinto et al, 2020).…”