NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program

Gary Wick, Pacific Testbed Co-lead

Robbie Hood, Program DirectorOffice of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research

Earth System Research Laboratory

17 June 2009

Outline

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

Overview

The NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program is evaluating the feasibility of UAS platforms to meet the NOAA Mission’s goals in

o Climateo Weather and Watero Ecosystemso 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

Why UAS?

• Fulfill a key gap in the existing observing system

• Hazardous conditions• Remote areas• Long endurance• Stealthy performance

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

General Program Plan

• Phase I (FY08-10) : Test and evaluate possible applications

o Evaluate UAS platformso Conduct Analysis of Alternatives for platforms and concept of operationso 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

6NOAA UAS Conference - 19 May 2009

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

NOAA UAS Conference - 19 May 2009 7

The Aircraft

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

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.

Global Hawk UAS

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

Zones are pressurized spaces Zones are unpressurized

Global Hawk UAS

• 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

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/EOL’s 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 @ 2 Hz rate

• Measures Winds @ 4 Hz rate

Missions of Interest

• NASA Hurricane Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Mission– Fall 2010

• Atmospheric Rivers– 2011-2012– Eastern Pacific

Zhu & Newell (1998) concluded in a 3-year ECMWF model diagnostic study:1) 95% of meridional water vapor flux occurs in narrow plumes in <10% of zonal circumference.2) There are typically 3-5 of these narrow plumes within a hemisphere at any one moment.3) They coined the term “atmospheric river” (AR) to reflect the narrow character of plumes.

Given the above: ARs are very important from a global water cycle perspective.

Observational studies by Ralph et al. (2004, 2005, 2006) extend model results:1) Long, narrow plumes of IWV >2 cm measured by SSM/I satellites considered proxies for ARs.2) These plumes are typically situated near the leading edge of polar cold fronts.3) P-3 aircraft documented strong water vapor flux in a narrow (400 km-wide) AR (along AA’).4) Airborne data also showed 75% of the vapor flux was below 2.5 km MSL.5) Moist-neutral stratification <2.8 km MSL, conducive to orographic precip. boost & floods.

400 km

Atmos. river

2 Jan 02 am; SSM/I IWV (cm)

IWV (cm)

EDW

DINTY

A

B

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 dropsondesC

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

IWV (cm)

16 Feb 04 pm; SSM/I IWV (cm)

MRY

100 km

500 km

35 GH drops

35 GH drops

cool secto

r

front s

ector

atmos. r

iver

sector

warm/d

ry

sector

250 km sides

P-3 flighttrack EDW

Dinty

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

IJ

K

L

Global Hawk Flight plan (detailed):Dates: ?Number of flights: ?Cruising Alt: ~18 kmCruising speed : ~175 m/sMax. duration/range: 30h/18900kmActual duration/range: -~4.5 h EDW-Dinty RT, plus -~20.6 h flight (~12984 km)

A-B: 1250 kmB-C: 250 kmC-D: 250 kmD-E: 250 kmE-F: 250 kmF-G:250 kmG-D: 250 kmD-E: 250 kmE-G: 355 kmG-H: 250 kmH-I: 250 kmI-F: 250 kmF-H: 335 kmH-J: 250 kmJ-K: 250 kmJ-I: 250 kmI-L: 560 km

InstrumentationDropsondes (70 total) channels: 8 descent time: 30 min resolution: 80 km (min >40 km)

completemulti-box5730 kmtimes 2

+1022 km

+422 km

+80 km

GH dropsondes

P3 inset box

Contact Information

NOAA UAS Web Site

http://UAS.noaa.gov

Gary Wick, Gary.A.Wick@noaa.gov

Robbie HoodNOAA UAS Program Director

Robbie.Hood@noaa.gov303-497-3008 (office) / 303-905-3411 (cell)

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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

Atmosphericriver

White River in Oregon,

7 November 2006

Photo courtesy of Doug Jones