Atmospheric and ocean boundary layer profiling with unmanned air platforms

Abstract

New techniques are being investigated to gather atmospheric and near ocean boundary layer data using unmanned air vehicles. The US Navy has supported the development of the Coyote, sonobuoy launched unmanned air vehicle (UAV) and associated sensor suite that has been miniaturized and integrated into the platform to provide temperature, atmospheric pressure, humidity and wind speed from its launch altitude to near sea level. Data is collected in World Meteorological Organization (WMO) standard format. Telemetry from the autopilot is used to georectify the data and provides true three dimensional profiles of atmospheric conditions in near-real time.