2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
2008 Annual Report - NASA Airborne Science Program
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Aerosonde Tropical<br />
Storm Observations<br />
<strong>Science</strong> Focus: Weather<br />
Sponsor: NOAA, A. Roberts, <strong>NASA</strong> HQ<br />
Location: Atlantic Ocean, Barbados<br />
The Aerosonde Unmanned Aerial<br />
System (UAS) was chosen to be<br />
part of the NOAA/<strong>NASA</strong> UAS<br />
Hurricane Demonstration Project<br />
with evaluation flights beginning<br />
in 2005. On September 16, 2005, an historic<br />
ten-hour Aerosonde mission marked the first<br />
time detailed observations were provided by<br />
a UAS in boundary layer conditions during a<br />
tropical storm.<br />
In <strong>2008</strong>, the project goals were to fully test<br />
and document the capabilities and limitations<br />
of the Aerosonde platform, provide critical<br />
low-altitude wind and thermodynamic data<br />
directly to NOAA’s National Hurricane<br />
Center in real time, and through research<br />
and analysis of all the data collected, improve<br />
our basic understanding of the hurricane<br />
environment to improve future forecasts of<br />
hurricane intensity change.<br />
With the demonstrated capacity to operate<br />
in hurricane conditions and provide low<br />
altitude, in situ observations in a critical<br />
region where manned aircraft cannot safely<br />
operate, the NOAA, <strong>NASA</strong> and DOE<br />
partners agreed in February 2006 to focus<br />
on low-level hurricane winds. The Low<br />
Altitude, Long Endurance (LALE) portion of<br />
the demonstration project made additional<br />
landmark events on November 2, 2007,<br />
with a 17.5 hour mission into Hurricane<br />
Noel, which directly impacted the National<br />
Hurricane Center operational forecast by<br />
providing near real-time data. UAS hurricane<br />
endurance (17.5 hours) and minimum altitude<br />
(82 m) records were also achieved.<br />
The <strong>2008</strong> UAS Hurricane (LALE)<br />
demonstration project is a NOAA/<strong>NASA</strong><br />
partnership which is focused on using small<br />
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