# Presentation: 206669

## NOAA Unmanned aircraft systems Chromatograph for Atmospheric Trace Species (UCATS)

**NASA Fire Mission Kickoff Meeting, Palmdale, CA May 2, 2006**
_*J.W. Elkins*_*1**, Principal Investigator,*
*Team:    D. F. Hurst**1,2**, F.L. Moore**1,2**, S. J. Oltmans**1**, *
*G.S. Dutton**1,2**, J. D. Nance**1,2**, and B. A. Vasel**1,2**, *
*1**NOAA/ESRL/GMD  and **2**CIRES*

- Photo courtesy: NASA Chase Plane on NOAA UAV flight of 14/11/2006 over Channel Islands, CA

## NOAA/ESRL UAS Chromatograph for Atmospheric Trace Species (UCATS)

- Box weighs 22 kg (55 lbs.), 24.6 x 40.6 x 45.7 cm (9.7x16x18.1”), 45.6 liters
- Measures O3 once every 10 seconds (commercial unit 2B,Inc.)
- Water vapor (H2O) once every 1 second (Maycomm, Inc).
- Measures N2O, SF6, CFC-11, CFC-12, halon-1211 once
-       every 70 seconds.  On board calibration.
- In the future, could measure( PAN, PPN) or (CO, H2, CH4)
-       for tropospheric mission.
-                   Compounds in red are measured by Aura Satellite Instruments.

## Components of UCATS on aircraft

- Randy May’s H2O TDL (cell inside)

- UCATS inlet (2 3/8” Stainless Steel)

- Pump, carrier gas and standard cylinder

- Carrier

- Pump

- Standard

- 2B Model O3 photometer

## Science with UCATS

- Biomass burning trace species:  H2O, CO, CH4, and N2O
- Tropospheric folds:  Stratospheric down-welling into the troposphere.
- Man-made tropospheric pollution tracers:  SF6, CO, and O3
- Aura Validation Trace Species (H2O, O3, N2O, CH4, CO).
- Stratosphere age of the air (SF6)

## Flight Key of Example Flights

**Flight Key of Example Flights**
**Red – Test Flights from El Mirage**
**Blue – 6 Hour Flight (Channel Islands)**
**Yellow – 21 Hour Flight (North Pacific)**

**NOAA UAS Demo Highlights – Spring and Fall  2005**

## Slide 6

## Slide 7

## Slide 8

## Slide 9

## Slide 10

## Slide 11

## Atmospheric Rivers over California

**Fatal mudslides and floods on 10 Jan 2005**

_**Atmospheric river on 9 Jan 2005**_

**Atmospheric Rivers over California**

## Results: Coastal Image Mapping

- Mosaic of Anacapa Island of the Channel Islands near Santa Barbara, California

## Results: Sea Lion Population Studies

- Sea Lions on the beach over the Channel lslands observed by UAS

## What is a tropopause fold?

- Folds are stratospheric intrusion of air that sinks beneath the upper tropospheric jet stream.
- Folds formed by a steepening of the tropopause at a jet core. Occurrences are common with major fronts and movement of polar stratospheric air into the midlatitudes.
- Folds are the dominant and most efficient form of short-term (days-weeks) Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange (STE)
- Brewer-Dobson Circulation makes up the long-term (years), large scale STE of air from the upper tropical troposphere to polar stratosphere.

- Brewer-Dobson Circulation

- Fold

## Observation of Tropopause Fold on the UAS Altair

- A

- B

- Five hour test flight finds fold above
- Gray Butte, CA airfield.

- PV plot courtesy of
- Leslie Lait, (NASA/GSFC)

## Results from Trinidad Head (THD)

- 481 flights with 13 failed launches, 10 flights with data to tropopause (not used).
- 47 out of 458 flights identified with possible folds (10.3%).
- Late winter and spring have the highest monthly frequency (left).
- Compares with previous ozonesonde study (Van Haver et al., 1996, GRL) of 2-5% of the total sondes have folds. A climatological study (Elbern et al., 1998) calculates an average of 11,000 fold days per year.

## Results: Aura Satellite Validation

- UCATS validation of nitrous oxide (N2O) and ozone (O3) data.

## Results:Long Duration Flight to NOAA Station@  Trinidad Head, California :14-15 Nov. 05

- 18.4 hour flight proves long endurance of Unmanned Aircraft System.

- Flight track over Pacific Ocean with PV

## Lessons Learned from NOAA UAS Demo

- Tool control in hangar, get in touch with GA for specialized tools.
- Internet is generally good for E-mail and web browsing, slow for large files.
- Hangar can be hot, have flying insects, and blowing sand.  Far west hangar door area was an improvement
- Insulation and heaters may be needed on high altitude flights
- Nomex felt, Velcro, and Kapton tape are permitted.
- All pressure vessels must have DOT certification or testing.
- Flame test on uncertain items.
- Optics and humidity can be a problem because of cold soaking.

## NOAA UAS Demonstration

- Team Members from NOAA/NASA/General Atomics after historic long endurance flight (18.4 hour).