NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems UAS Program

1
NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program

• Gary Wick, Pacific Testbed Co-lead
• Robbie Hood, Program Director
• Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
• Earth System Research Laboratory
• 17 June 2009

2
Outline

• Background/Organization
• Missions
• NASA Global Hawk
• Potential wind lidar applications

3
Overview

• The NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program
  is evaluating the feasibility of UAS platforms to
  meet the NOAA Missions goals in
• Climate
• Weather and Water
• Ecosystems
• Commerce and Transportation
• The evaluation will be based on NOAA
  observational requirements, technology readiness
  assessments, UAS science demonstrations and
  Analysis of Alternatives for potential UAS
  acquisitions

4
Why UAS?

• Fulfill a key gap in the existing observing
  system
• Hazardous conditions
• Remote areas
• Long endurance
• Stealthy performance

5
Limitations

• Airspace access
• Flights in US airspace require a Certificate of
  Authorization (COA) from the FAA
• Primary limitation is see and avoid
• Many current demonstrations in military or
  foreign airspace
• Affordability

6
General Program Plan

• Phase I (FY08-10) Test and evaluate possible
  applications
• Evaluate UAS platforms
• Conduct Analysis of Alternatives for platforms
  and concept of operations
• Submit go/no go UAS acquisition
  recommendation to NOAA management by FY10
• If a go recommendation is accepted
• Phase II (FY11-13) Acquire and operate a
  first set of major UAS
• Phase III (FY14 and beyond) Expand to global
  coverage

7
Personnel

• Matrix team comprised of 15 team members
  represented by OAR, OMAO, NOS, NWS, and NMFS
• Total staffing budget is 6 FTE funded by the UAS
  Program
• OMAO contributes 1 FTE
• NOS, NWS, NMFS contribute .25 FTE each
• Testbeds are co-led by research and operational
  scientists

8
The Aircraft
9
Science Activities

• Arctic Testbed
• Greenland ice mapping
• Ice seal observations
• Gulf / Atlantic Testbed
• Hurricane Noel flight
• Pacific Testbed
• Air-sea fluxes and atmospheric rivers
• Fishery surveillance
• Observing System Simulation Experiments

10
First 7 Mission Concepts

• An operational UAS mission concept to monitor
  Arctic ice seals for the NMFS using low altitude
  UAS platforms launched from a NOAA ship
• An research UAS mission concept to study climate
  change issues such as atmospheric composition and
  Arctic sea ice and ecosystems
• A research UAS mission concept to study air-sea
  interactions in the boundary layer of hurricanes
  using low altitude UAS platforms
• A research/operational UAS mission concept to
  evaluate high altitude UAS platforms and sensors
  for monitoring hurricane intensity and structure
  changes
• A research UAS mission concept to evaluate low
  and high altitude platforms and sensors to
  improve our understanding of atmospheric rivers
  of water vapor over the Pacific ocean which
  impact rainfall and flooding predictions on the
  USA West Coast
• An operational UAS mission concept to evaluate
  low altitude platforms launched from NOAA ships
  to monitoring of national marine monuments for
  NOS
• An research UAS mission concept to evaluate UAS
  platforms to provide real-time information needed
  for improved understanding and prediction of fire
  weather. This activity is being funded by
  Economic Stimulus Funding provided to NIST.

11
Global Hawk UAS
Global Hawk UAS
Two Global Hawk UAS platforms have been acquired
by NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, CA (AV-6
AV-1).

• Fully autonomous
• Wingspan 116 ft
• 210 - 335 KTAS
• 1500 - 2000 lb payload, 10 kVA payload power
• Performance Alt 65,000 ft, Range 11,000 nm,
  Endurance 31 hrs
• First flight later this month
• First science mission (GloPac) later this year

12
Dropsonde Development

• Form a collaborative partnership between NOAA,
  NCAR, NASA to build and integrate an automated
  dropsonde system on the Global Hawk UAS
• Rely on NCAR/EOLs long experience with dropsonde
  development and launching for new system
• Use the new MIST sonde smaller and lighter than
  current dropsondes
• Target a 100-sonde/8 channel system for optimal
  performance on 30 hr flights

• Preliminary MIST Sonde Specifications
• Mass 175 g
• Length 30.5 cm
• Diameter 4.7 cm
• Fall speed 11 m/s at sea surface
• Measures pressure, temperature, humidity _at_ 2 Hz
  rate
• Measures Winds _at_ 4 Hz rate

13
Missions of Interest

• NASA Hurricane Genesis and Rapid Intensification
  Processes (GRIP) Mission
• Fall 2010
• Atmospheric Rivers
• 2011-2012
• Eastern Pacific

14
(No Transcript)
15

• Observational studies by Ralph et al. (2004,
  2005, 2006) extend model results
• Long, narrow plumes of IWV gt2 cm measured by
  SSM/I satellites considered proxies for ARs.
• These plumes are typically situated near the
  leading edge of polar cold fronts.
• P-3 aircraft documented strong water vapor flux
  in a narrow (400 km-wide) AR (along AA).
• Airborne data also showed 75 of the vapor flux
  was below 2.5 km MSL.
• Moist-neutral stratification lt2.8 km MSL,
  conducive to orographic precip. boost floods.

16
2 Jan 02 am SSM/I IWV (cm)
Global HawkAtmospheric River/Tropical Tap
Flight Plan Distance (DINTY-DINTY) -
7600 nmi or 14,000 km Assumed Speed -
335 knots or 172.4 m/s Flight Duration -
EDW-DINTY RT 4.5 hours - DINTY-DINTY
22.7 hours Sampling Legs - A-B 1460 km
- B-C 1000 km - C-D 700 km -
D-E 1000 km - F-G 1000 km - H-I
1000 km - J-K 1000 km Dropsonde spacing
100 km 75 total dropsondes
EDW
J
DINTY
I
K
F
H
A
E
G
D
B
C
IWV (cm)
17
Global Hawk Flight plan (detailed) Dates
? Number of flights ? Cruising Alt 18
km Cruising speed 175 m/s Max. duration/range
30h/18900km Actual duration/range -4.5 h
EDW-Dinty RT, plus -20.6 h flight (12984
km) A-B 1250 km B-C 250 km C-D 250 km D-E
250 km E-F 250 km F-G250 km G-D 250 km D-E
250 km E-G 355 km G-H 250 km H-I 250 km I-F
250 km F-H 335 km H-J 250 km J-K 250 km J-I
250 km I-L 560 km Instrumentation Dropsondes
(70 total) channels 8 descent time 30
min resolution 80 km (min gt40 km)
16 Feb 04 pm SSM/I IWV (cm)
P3 inset box
250 km sides
500 km
cool sector
MRY
C
front sector
P-3 flight track
complete multi-box 5730 km times 2 1022
km 422 km 80 km
EDW
D
B
atmos. river sector
Dinty
G
E
H
warm/dry sector
F
35 GH drops
J
I
L
GH dropsondes
K
35 GH drops
100 km
A
IWV (cm)
18
Contact Information
NOAA UAS Web Site http//UAS.noaa.gov Gary
Wick, Gary.A.Wick_at_noaa.gov Robbie Hood NOAA UAS
Program Director Robbie.Hood_at_noaa.gov 303-49
7-3008 (office) / 303-905-3411 (cell)
19
Atmospheric Rivers

• What are Atmospheric Rivers?
• Narrow plumes of enhanced water vapor flux
• Responsible for 95 of the meridional flux in
  less than 10 of the circumference
• Why we care
• The storms of greatest concern along the west
  coast
• All 7 major floods of Russian River since 1997
  have been fed by atmospheric rivers
• Responsible for as much as 50 of the water
  supply in the Sierra Nevada

White River in Oregon, 7 November 2006 Photo
courtesy of Doug Jones