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 Mission’s 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 NOAA UAS Conference - 19 May 2009

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 NOAA UAS Conference - 19 May 2009

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 Zones are pressurized spaces Zones are unpressurized 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/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

13. Missions of Interest NASA Hurricane Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Mission Fall 2010 Atmospheric Rivers 2011-2012 Eastern Pacific

14. Zhu & Newell (1998) concluded in a 3-year ECMWF model diagnostic study: • 95% of meridional water vapor flux occurs in narrow plumes in <10% of zonal circumference. • There are typically 3-5 of these narrow plumes within a hemisphere at any one moment. • 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.

15. Atmos. river 400 km • Observational studies by Ralph et al. (2004, 2005, 2006) extend model results: • Long, narrow plumes of IWV >2 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 <2.8 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-G:250 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 >40 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@noaa.gov Robbie Hood NOAA UAS Program Director Robbie.Hood@noaa.gov 303-497-3008 (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 Atmospheric river White River in Oregon, 7 November 2006 Photo courtesy of Doug Jones