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

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 Climate o Weather and Water o Ecosystems o 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 platforms o Conduct Analysis of Alternatives for platforms and concept of operations o 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

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 KTAS 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, 2 Hz rate Measures 4 Hz rate

Missions of Interest NASA Hurricane Genesis and Rapid Intensification Processes (GRIP) Mission –Fall 2010 Atmospheric Rivers – –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 Hawk Atmospheric River/Tropical Tap Flight Plan Distance (DINTY-DINTY): - ~7600 nmi or ~14,000 km Assumed Speed: knots or 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 C 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 cool sector front sector atmos. river sector warm/dry sector 250 km sides P-3 flight track EDW Dinty A B C D E F G H I J K L 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) complete multi-box 5730 km times km km + 80 km GH dropsondes P3 inset box

Contact Information NOAA UAS Web Site Gary Wick, Robbie Hood NOAA UAS Program Director (office) / (cell) 18

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