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Atmosphere
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Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Troposphere: Developments and Applications
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Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Troposphere: Developments and Applications

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Techniques, Instruments, and Modeling".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (2 November 2023) | Viewed by 7783

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Konrad Bärfuss

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Flight Guidance, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Str. 27, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Interests: wind field; atmospheric boundary layer; polar research; sea surface; offshore wind farms; LiDAR; airborne measurements; sensor development; UAS applications; UAS development
Dr. Barbara Harm-Altstädter

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Flight Guidance, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Hermann-Blenk-Str. 27, 38108 Braunschweig, Germany
Interests: atmospheric aerosol; new particle formation; polar research; environmental chemistry; turbulence; UAS applications; atmospheric boundary layer; airborne measurements

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Special Issue of Atmosphere which aims at presenting the state-of-the-art developments of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) and their applications for investigating atmospheric processes between the Earth’s surface and the tropopause.

Your submissions introducing innovative designed platforms and scientific sensors, performed field experiments and acquired atmospheric data are welcome.

In particular, we invite you to present your platforms, sensors and concepts (including assimilation in NWP) to be deployed in the near future (e.g., for the worldwide WMO UAS Demonstration Campaign in 2024) and data sets which are validated with numerical weather simulations on small-scale or large-scale. Further, we encourage all authors to share their experiences with UAS in challenging field applications, for instance, in polar areas, high altitude, complex terrain, sub-/urban and critical areas, i.e., those that are influenced by complex terrain, clouds and high wind speeds. In particular, those studies and direct comparisons with in situ data, such as those based on weather masts, Eddy-covariance stations, and remote-sensing, e.g., LIDAR, that are performed at the same time or in parallel with other airborne platforms or in swarms, will be given priority, but are not a limiting criterion.

The UAS investigations may address fundamental basic approaches in the fields of physical and chemical analyzes, such as the study of wind fields, transport, and turbulence, or could address the high-frequency profiles of aerosols, trace gases or pollutants that help to identify emission hot spots which are directly affecting our human health.

Besides applied operations, technical and regulatory aspects are also very much welcome, as a path towards integration of UAS data into operational meteorology and research, including data management and assimilation.

Dr. Konrad Bärfuss
Dr. Barbara Harm-Altstädter
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • UAS
  • UAV
  • RPAS
  • drone
  • aircraft development for atmospheric research
  • atmospheric data
  • sensor development
  • sounding of lower atmosphere
  • meteorology
  • chemistry
  • physics (e.g., transport, mixing, turbulence)
  • aerosol particles
  • trace gases
  • pollutants
  • wind field
  • data assimilation with model, e.g., NWP
  • complex field campaigns
  • UAS regulations

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 8047 KiB  
Article
Experimental Characterization of Propeller-Induced Flow (PIF) below a Multi-Rotor UAV
by Alexander A. Flem, Mauro Ghirardelli, Stephan T. Kral, Etienne Cheynet, Tor Olav Kristensen and Joachim Reuder
Atmosphere 2024, 15(3), 242; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15030242 - 20 Feb 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1861
Abstract
The availability of multi-rotor UAVs with lifting capacities of several kilograms allows for a new paradigm in atmospheric measurement techniques, i.e., the integration of research-grade sonic anemometers for airborne turbulence measurements. With their ability to hover and move very slowly, this approach yields [...] Read more.
The availability of multi-rotor UAVs with lifting capacities of several kilograms allows for a new paradigm in atmospheric measurement techniques, i.e., the integration of research-grade sonic anemometers for airborne turbulence measurements. With their ability to hover and move very slowly, this approach yields unrevealed flexibility compared to mast-based sonic anemometers for a wide range of boundary layer investigations that require an accurate characterization of the turbulent flow. For an optimized sensor placement, potential disturbances by the propeller-induced flow (PIF) must be considered. The PIF characterization can be done by CFD simulations, which, however, require validation. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment to map the PIF below a multi-rotor drone using a mobile array of five sonic anemometers. To achieve measurements in a controlled environment, the drone was mounted inside a hall at a 90° angle to its usual flying orientation, thus leading to the development of a horizontal downwash, which is not subject to a pronounced ground effect. The resulting dataset maps the PIF parallel to the rotor plane from two rotor diameters, beneath, to 10 D, and perpendicular to the rotor plane from the center line of the downwash to a distance of 3 D. This measurement strategy resulted in a detailed three-dimensional picture of the downwash below the drone in high spatial resolution. The experimental results show that the PIF quickly decreases with increasing distance from the centerline of the downwash in the direction perpendicular to the rotor plane. At a distance of 1 D from the centerline, the PIF reduced to less than 4 ms−1 within the first 5 D beneath the drone, and no conclusive disturbance was measured at 2 D out from the centerline. A PIF greater than 4 ms−1 was still observed along the center of the downwash at a distance of 10 D for both throttle settings tested (35% and 45%). Within the first 4 D under the rotor plane, flow convergence towards the center of the downwash was measured before changing to diverging, causing the downwash to expand. This coincides with the transition from the four individual downwash cores into a single one. The turbulent velocity fluctuations within the downwash were found to be largest towards the edges, where the shear between the PIF and the stagnant surrounding air is the largest. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Troposphere: Developments and Applications)
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14 pages, 4486 KiB  
Article
Non-Line-of-Sight Atmospheric Optical Communication in the Visible Wavelength Range between UAV and the Ground Surface
by Mikhail V. Tarasenkov, Egor S. Poznakharev and Andrey V. Fedosov
Atmosphere 2024, 15(1), 21; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15010021 - 24 Dec 2023
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2465
Abstract
An opto-electronic system for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communication using scattered laser radiation for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)–ground and ground–UAV schemes at a wavelength of λ = 450 nm and a ground–UAV scheme at a wavelength of λ = 510 nm are described. The symbol [...] Read more.
An opto-electronic system for non-line-of-sight (NLOS) communication using scattered laser radiation for unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)–ground and ground–UAV schemes at a wavelength of λ = 450 nm and a ground–UAV scheme at a wavelength of λ = 510 nm are described. The symbol error rate (SER) and its standard deviation were analyzed for different schemes of the communication channel. The transceiver system included a laser source with a power supply, a modulator, a lens refractor, a bandpass filter, a photomultiplier tube (PMT), a demodulator, and a receiving computer. The experimental data obtained at nighttime showed that the NLOS atmospheric optical communication at a wavelength of λ = 450 nm was feasible for the UAV–ground scheme at a baseline distance of up to 150 m for a UAV with a transmitter at a height of 10 m and at a baseline distance of up to 125 m for a UAV at a height of 20 m. For the ground–UAV scheme, stable communication was observed at baseline distances of up to 50 m for a UAV with a receiver at a height up to 30 m. The NLOS atmospheric optical communication at a wavelength of 510 nm was obtained for the ground–UAV scheme at baseline distances of up to 100 m for a UAV with a receiver at a height up to 45 m, as well as at baseline distances of up to 385 m for UAV flying at a height up to 20 m. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Troposphere: Developments and Applications)
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25 pages, 13725 KiB  
Article
Evaluation of an Automatic Meteorological Drone Based on a 6-Month Measurement Campaign
by Maxime Hervo, Gonzague Romanens, Giovanni Martucci, Tanja Weusthoff and Alexander Haefele
Atmosphere 2023, 14(9), 1382; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos14091382 - 31 Aug 2023
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2697
Abstract
From December 2021 to May 2022, MeteoSwiss and Meteomatics conducted a proof of concept to demonstrate the capability of automatic drones to provide data of sufficient quality and reliability on a routine operational basis. Over 6 months, Meteodrones MM-670 were operated automatically eight [...] Read more.
From December 2021 to May 2022, MeteoSwiss and Meteomatics conducted a proof of concept to demonstrate the capability of automatic drones to provide data of sufficient quality and reliability on a routine operational basis. Over 6 months, Meteodrones MM-670 were operated automatically eight times per night at Payerne, Switzerland. In total, 864 meteorological profiles were measured and compared to co-located standard measurements, including radiosoundings and remote sensing instruments. To our knowledge, this is the first time that Meteodrone’s atmospheric profiles have been evaluated in such an extensive campaign. The paper highlights two case studies that showcase the performance and challenges of measuring temperature, humidity, and wind with a Meteodrone. It also focuses on the overall quality of the drone measurements. Throughout the campaign, the availability of Meteodrone measurements was 75.7%, with 82.2% of the flights reaching the nominal altitude of 2000 m above sea level. The quality of the measurements was assessed against the WMO’s (World Meteorological Organization) requirements. The temperature measurements gathered by the Meteodrone met the “breakthrough” target, while the humidity and wind profiles met the “threshold” target for high-resolution numerical weather prediction. The temperature measurement quality was comparable to that of a microwave radiometer, and the humidity quality was similar to that obtained from a Raman LiDAR. However, the wind measurements gathered by a Doppler LiDAR were more accurate than the estimation provided by the Meteodrone. This campaign marks a significant step towards the operational use of automatic drones for meteorological applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Unmanned Aerial Systems for Investigating the Troposphere: Developments and Applications)
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