using unmanned aircraft for airborne science

8/14/2019 Using Unmanned Aircraft for Airborne Science

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Using Unmanned Aircraft for Airborne

Science:

An IntroductionPresented by:

Brenda L. Mulac

NASA Liaison, FAA Unmanned Aircraft Program Office

Student Airborne Research Program (SARP)

UC Irvine

13 July 2009


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Overview

Unmanned Aircraft 101

What is a UAS?

Types of UAS

UAS and Science Applications

Why use UAS for science

Applications

Instrumentation

Example past missions

Current and Future NASA missions

Challenges to Using UAS Technical

Regulatory


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Unmanned Aircraft 101


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Unmanned Aircraft 101:

What is a UAS?

Unmanned Aircraft System

Aircraft and payloads (the UAV)

Command and Control System (ie GCS)

Communications architecture

Beyond Line of Sight

Line of Sight

Control System

SATCOM LinkUser Community

UAV


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UAS Wingspan Endurance Payload Speed

Wasp 0.72m 0.75hr ---- 14m/s

Aerosonde 2.9m 30hr 5.3kg 26m/s

Viking 400 6.1m 10-12hr 30kg 29m/sIkhana 20m 24hr 1360kg 113m/s

Global Hawk 35.4m 30hr 907kg 172m/s

Various sizes and capabilities


Types of UAS

AAI Aerosonde NASA IkhanaNASA Global Hawk


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Different Pilot/Control types: Remote Control (RC)

Standard hobby style

Remotely Piloted

Pilot-Operator


Types of UAS


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Unmanned Aircraft

and

Science Applications


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Dull Dirty Dangerous

Some missions require long, repetitive, precise flightlines

Fault line mapping

Topographic surveys

Flights into extremely remote areas

Arctic ice applications

Flying through volcanic plumes

Hurricane boundary layer flights

Long duration missions

Diurnal cycle Hurricane monitoring

Plume tracking

Slow speeds flux measurements

UAS and Science Applications:

Why use UAS?


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Some earth science applications identified byscientists

Repeat Pass Interferometry Cloud and Aerosol Measurements Stratospheric Ozone Chemistry Tropospheric Pollution and Air Quality Water Vapor and Total Water Meas. Coastal Ocean Observations Active Fire, Emissions, and Plume

Assess. O2 and CO2 Flux Measurements Vegetation Structure, Composition, Aerosol, Cloud, and Precipitation Dist. Glacier and Ice Sheet Dynamics Radiation - Vertical Profiles of

Shortwave... Ice Sheet Thickness and Surface Def. Imaging Spectroscopy Topographic Mapping Gravitational Acceleration Measures

Antarctic Exploration Surveyor Magnetic Fields Measurements Cloud Properties River Discharge Snow Liquid Water Equivalents Soil Moisture and Freeze/Thaw States Cloud Microphysics/Properties Focused Observations Extreme Weather Forecast Initialization Hurricane Genesis, Evolution, and

Landfall Physical Oceanography Tracking Transport and Evolution of

Poll. Clouds/ Aerosol/ Gas/ Radiation Inter. Long Time Scale Vertical Profiling of

Atmos. Global 3D Continuous Measurement Transport and Chemical Evolution


Applications


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Radars

Synthetic Aperature Radar

Lidars

In-situ measurements

SO2, Ozone, temperature, pressure,humidity

Particle measurements

Video Ice Particle Sensor (VIPS)

Particle counters

Pyrometers, radiometers

Etc


Instrumentation


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NSF-Fundedresearch in Barrow,

Alaska conducted

by CU and

Aerosonde NA

5 year effort 2000-

2005

Ice mapping

Atmospheric

measurements

Cloud physics

Proof of concept


Past Missions - Barrow


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Summer 2002Deployment

Infrared pyrometer onAerosonde

Scales of variability inSST better understood

J. Inoue, J. Curry, Applications of Aerosondes to high

resolution observations of sea surface temperature over

Barrow Canyon, Geo. Res. Let., vol 31, L14312,

doi:10.1029, July 2004.




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June 2004 deployment focused on meltpond mapping and characterization

over Beaufort and Chukchi Seas

Several hundred pictures taken of sea

ice during various stages of melt

GPS data associated with photographs

used to co-locate on MODIS footprint

Flight pattern: 10 x 10 km box

Digital photographs overlapped along

and across track

Designed to cover ~400 pixels of

MODIS footprint at 500m resolution

Mosaics of photos

June 13, 2004 flew 2 boxes


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MODIS band 1, 250m resolution

BarrowClouds

Region of Aerosonde flights




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Mosaic of aerial photos




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Aerosonde Flight into Hurricane Noel, 2007

First UAS flight into a hurricane

Low level flight in boundary layer

200 to 1000ft in altitude

Penetration of eye wall

Over 7hr of data

Determined data more valuable than aircraft Aircraft was intentionally ditched in the ocean


Past Missions


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Past Missions

S S


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NASA Global Hawk first mission

GloPAC First demonstration of the Global

Hawk UAS for NASA and NOAA

Earth science research and

applications

Pacific Ocean and Arctic flights

Aura validation

Exploration of trace gases,

aerosols, and dynamics of remote

UT/LS regions

Sample polar vortex fragments and

atmospheric rivers

Risk reduction for future mission

(e.g., hurricanes reconnaissance)


Current and Future Missions

UAS d S i A li ti


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Current and Future MissionsStratospheric tracers

H2O Herman, JPL

O3 Gao, NOAA ESRL

Long-lived gases

1) N2O, SF6; 2) CO, H2, CH4 Elkins, NOAA ESRL

or CFC-11, CFC-12, Halon-1211

UV-Vis spectrometer (column NO2

) Janz, NASA GSFC

Aerosols

CNC (0.008 - 2 m) Wilson, Denver U

FCAS (0.09 - 1 m) Wilson, Denver U

UHSAS (0.05 - 200 nm) Kok, Baumgardner, DMT

Cloud properties (lidar) McGill, NASA GSFC

Microwave Temp Profiler (MTP) Mahoney, JPL

Meteorological parameters Bui, NASA Ames

MVIS (camera) Myers, NASA Ames

AMS(multispectral scanner) Myers, NASA Ames

Dropsondes (under development) Fahey, NOAA & NCAR

UAS d S i A li ti


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UAS d S i A li ti


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CASSIE SIERRA UAS flights

out of Svalbard,

Norway (going on

now!)

Arctic sea ice

characterization

Instrumentation:

MicroASAR

Laser altimeter

Meteorological

sensors (PTU)

Microspectrometer



UAS d S i A li ti


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NASA SIERRA



UAS d S i A li ti


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Challenges for Using

Unmanned Aircraft

For Science

The Challenges:


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The Challenges:

Technical Challenges

Technology is maturing, but still not

extremely reliable Platform experience and reliability

Sensor development

Sensor technology Miniaturization and automation of sensors

Data storage and data relay Require either on-board storage or ability to

relay data to ground real time

Airframe icing in the Arctic Same issues as manned aircraft

Th Ch ll R l t


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The Challenges: Regulatory

US Airspace Structure Overview

US Airspace Structure:


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US Airspace Structure:

Oceanic Airspace

Oceanic regions regulated by ICAO

Begins 12nm off US coastline

Different Flight Information Regions (FIRs) FAA provides services in FIRs

ICAO delegated authority to FAA to apply rules and

regulations Bulk of Oceanic is Class A (5,500ft up to FL600)

Below 5,500ft is Class G

US Regulations:


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US Regulations:

Public vs Civil Aircraft

All aircraft must comply with FAA Code

of Federal Regulations (CFRs) Civil aircraft (airlines, general aviation):

Required to obtain airworthiness certificationfrom FAA

Compliance with FAA standards for manufacture,maintenance, etc

Public Aircraft (government owned) By law are not required to comply with FAA

airworthiness standards Must have airworthiness certificate to fly inNAS

In-house airworthiness process

US Regulations:


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US Regulations:

14 CFR 91

Title 14, Aeronautics and Space, Part

91 General Operating and Flight Rules General, visual, and instrument flight rules

(VFR, IFR)

Equipage, instrument, and certificate

requirements Required maintenance

Created with manned aircraft in mind

UAS do not or cannot comply to asignificant portion of 14 CFR 91 at

this time


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Current Methods of Access

Certificate of Authorization (COA)

Method available to Public Aircraft only Federal and State government including universities Provide their own airworthiness statement

Approval given case by case Provides access to specific areas with limitations and

requirements

Expires one year after approval date unless otherwisenoted

Can take up to 6mo to receive approval

Experimental Certificates for UAS

Available to commercial companies for testing aircraft Rigorous airworthiness review by FAA Certificate grants access to specific areas with tight

restrictions for operations


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The Challenges

Lack of standards and regulations

Grounded civil or commercial UAS activities

Experimental Certificate process

Takes about 1 year to complete

Very restrictive

Small UAS Rulemaking activity ongoing

Addresses UAS up to 55lb (~25kg)

Process will take about 3 years

Limited to visual line of site and daytime

operations

Public aircraft not as affected because self

certify airworthiness


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The Challenges

See and Avoid

14 CFR 91.113: When weather conditions

permit, regardless of whether an operation is

conducted under instrument flight rules or visual

flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by

each person operating an aircraft so as to seeand avoid other aircraft.

Biggest issue for public aircraft

Cannot rely on manned aircraft to watch out for

UAS and move out of the way

No technical solution currently available

See and A oid


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See and Avoid:

Example Problems UAS flying at 25,000ft; Generator fails

during flight, battery life only 45minutes Need to land a soon as possible, therefore

must leave Class A airspace and enter ClassE airspace

ATC no longer providing services, including

separation

Question: How does UAS ensure risk ofcollision with another aircraft is

mitigated?

Big Sky Theory not applicable Lots of general aviation in Class D, E, and G

See and Avoid:


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See and Avoid:

Example Problems

Manned aircraft declare an emergency, ATC

creates hole in sky

Cooperative versus uncooperative aircraft

Emergency dictated by threat to souls on board

aircraft

Pilot on board can steer around potential obstaclesand avoid populated areas on the ground

Questions: What constitutes an emergency on

an unmanned aircraft? How do UAS steer

clear of obstacles and populated areas onthe ground?

.


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Summary

Significant potential for using UAS for earthscience to fill data gaps

Past and current UAS missions

demonstrate capability and potential

Challenges to flying UAS for science are

significant and require additional work


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Questions?

Any questions, please contact me:

[email protected]

Thank you!
mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]

using unmanned aircraft for airborne science

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