Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
4.1
2.9
Journals
Atmosphere
Special Issues
Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems
share announcement

Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems

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 (15 September 2019) | Viewed by 18965

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Grant Allen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
Interests: greenhouse gas flux quantification; aircraft-led measurement science; emission flux modeling; infrared remote sensing

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The advent of unmanned aerial systems (UASs) opens up exciting new sampling and measurement strategies to facilitate many fields of atmospheric science, especially (but not limited to) those concerned with emissions quantification, air quality, and micrometeorology. UAS platforms and next-generation precision sensors tailored to them have much to offer, and their use is increasing rapidly across the atmospheric science community.

This Special Issue invites studies that make use of UASs and/or describe relevant instrumentation or methods, as applied to atmospheric science across the spectrum of potential applications. This Special Issue is timely, as there is much to be gained from rapid knowledge exchange in this emergent measurement field. We are also interested in studies that may make use of UAS data in wider measurement and modelling strategies.

Dr. Grant Allen
Guest Editor

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

  • Unmanned aerial systems
  • Small sensor technology
  • Unmanned aerial vehicles
  • Drones

Published Papers (4 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

12 pages, 4240 KiB  
Article
Spatial Variability of the Lower Atmospheric Boundary Layer over Hilly Terrain as Observed with an RPAS
by Joan Cuxart, Burkhard Wrenger, Blazenka Matjacic and Larry Mahrt
Atmosphere 2019, 10(11), 715; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10110715 - 15 Nov 2019
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2592
Abstract
The operation of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) over a hilly area in northern Germany allows inspection of the variability of the profiles of temperature, humidity, and wind speed next to a small hill. Four cases in nearly stationary conditions are analyzed. [...] Read more.
The operation of a Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) over a hilly area in northern Germany allows inspection of the variability of the profiles of temperature, humidity, and wind speed next to a small hill. Four cases in nearly stationary conditions are analyzed. Two events are windy, one overcast and the other with clear skies, whereas the two other cases have weak winds, one overcast, and one with clear skies and dissipating mist. The profiles are made at five locations surrounding the hill, separated by a distance from each other of 5 km at most, sampling up to 130 m above the ground. The average profiles and their standard deviations indicate that the variability in the windy cases is approximately constant with height, likely linked to the turbulent flow itself, whereas, for the weak wind cases, the variability diminishes with height, and it is probably linked to the surface variability. The variability between soundings is large. The computation of the root mean square error with respect to the average of the soundings for each case shows that the site closest to the average is the one over open terrain and low vegetation, whereas the site in the forest is the farthest from average. Comparison with the profiles to the nearest grid point of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) model shows that the closest values are provided by the average of the soundings and by the site closest to the average. Despite the small dataset collected during this exercise, the methodology developed here can be used for more cases and locations with the aim to characterize better the local variability in the lower atmosphere. In this sense, a non-dimensional heterogeneity index is proposed to quantify the topographically and thermally induced variability in complex terrain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

9 pages, 2785 KiB  
Article
Measurement of SO2 and NO2 in Ship Plumes Using Rotary Unmanned Aerial System
by Fan Zhou, Jing Gu, Wei Chen and Xunpeng Ni
Atmosphere 2019, 10(11), 657; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10110657 - 29 Oct 2019
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3658
Abstract
A key research problem in the field of ship emissions is how to perform efficient, accurate, and timely measurements of pollutant gases in a ship’s plume. To address this, we have designed and implemented an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that consists of a [...] Read more.
A key research problem in the field of ship emissions is how to perform efficient, accurate, and timely measurements of pollutant gases in a ship’s plume. To address this, we have designed and implemented an unmanned aerial system (UAS) that consists of a rotary unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), a lightweight pod for exhaust monitoring, and a mobile control terminal. The UAV carries the pod and a camera and can fly into a plume at close range. The pod is equipped with a gas acquisition module, SO2 and NO2 sensors, and communication modules to measure the gases in real time. The mobile control terminal is convenient for operators and receives real-time video and measured gas concentrations. We measured SO2 and NO2 in six ship plumes in 2018 to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of the UAS. The SO2/NO2 ratios in high-sulfur fuel were significantly higher than of those in low-sulfur fuel and can thus be used for distinguishing the sulfur content of ship fuel. In comparison to land-based and airborne-based measurements, we conclude that the UAS provides an active, close-range, low-cost, and accurate measurement approach for monitoring ship emissions in real time. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

25 pages, 3832 KiB  
Article
A Near-Field Gaussian Plume Inversion Flux Quantification Method, Applied to Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Sampling
by Adil Shah, Grant Allen, Joseph R. Pitt, Hugo Ricketts, Paul I. Williams, Jonathan Helmore, Andrew Finlayson, Rod Robinson, Khristopher Kabbabe, Peter Hollingsworth, Tristan C. Rees-White, Richard Beaven, Charlotte Scheutz and Mark Bourn
Atmosphere 2019, 10(7), 396; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10070396 - 15 Jul 2019
Cited by 31 | Viewed by 6362
Abstract
The accurate quantification of methane emissions from point sources is required to better quantify emissions for sector-specific reporting and inventory validation. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) serves as a platform to sample plumes near to source. This paper describes a near-field Gaussian plume [...] Read more.
The accurate quantification of methane emissions from point sources is required to better quantify emissions for sector-specific reporting and inventory validation. An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) serves as a platform to sample plumes near to source. This paper describes a near-field Gaussian plume inversion (NGI) flux technique, adapted for downwind sampling of turbulent plumes, by fitting a plume model to measured flux density in three spatial dimensions. The method was refined and tested using sample data acquired from eight UAV flights, which measured a controlled release of methane gas. Sampling was conducted to a maximum height of 31 m (i.e. above the maximum height of the emission plumes). The method applies a flux inversion to plumes sampled near point sources. To test the method, a series of random walk sampling simulations were used to derive an NGI upper uncertainty bound by quantifying systematic flux bias due to a limited spatial sampling extent typical for short-duration small UAV flights (less than 30 min). The development of the NGI method enables its future use to quantify methane emissions for point sources, facilitating future assessments of emissions from specific source-types and source areas. This allows for atmospheric measurement-based fluxes to be derived using downwind UAV sampling for relatively rapid flux analysis, without the need for access to difficult-to-reach areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

33 pages, 22698 KiB  
Article
Calibration Procedure and Accuracy of Wind and Turbulence Measurements with Five-Hole Probes on Fixed-Wing Unmanned Aircraft in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer and Wind Turbine Wakes
by Alexander Rautenberg, Jonas Allgeier, Saskia Jung and Jens Bange
Atmosphere 2019, 10(3), 124; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10030124 - 07 Mar 2019
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 6033
Abstract
For research in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the vicinity of wind turbines, the turbulent 3D wind vector can be measured from fixed-wing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with a five-hole probe and an inertial navigation system. Since non-zero vertical wind and varying [...] Read more.
For research in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the vicinity of wind turbines, the turbulent 3D wind vector can be measured from fixed-wing unmanned aerial systems (UAS) with a five-hole probe and an inertial navigation system. Since non-zero vertical wind and varying horizontal wind causes variations in the airspeed of the UAS, and since it is desirable to sample with a flexible cruising airspeed to match a broad range of operational requirements, the influence of airspeed variations on mean values and turbulence statistics is investigated. Three calibrations of the five-hole probe at three different airspeeds are applied to the data of three flight experiments. Mean values and statistical moments of second order, calculated from horizontal straight level flights are compared between flights in a stably stratified polar boundary layer and flights over complex terrain in high turbulence. Mean values are robust against airspeed variations, but the turbulent kinetic energy, variances and especially covariances, and the integral length scale are strongly influenced. Furthermore, a transect through the wake of a wind turbine and a tip vortex is analyzed, showing the instantaneous influence of the intense variations of the airspeed on the measurement of the turbulent 3D wind vector. For turbulence statistics, flux calculations, and quantitative analysis of turbine wake characteristics, an independent measurement of the true airspeed with a pitot tube and the interpolation of calibration polynomials at different Reynolds numbers of the probe’s tip onto the Reynolds number during the measurement, reducing the uncertainty significantly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Measurement of Atmospheric Composition by Unmanned Aerial Systems)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-4
Back to TopTop