# Presentation: 376438

## Proposed Role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in NOAA's Future 

- Proposed Role of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in NOAA's Future

- A presentation to:
- UAV Workshop
- Scripps Institute of Oceanography
- Alexander E. MacDonald
- August 3, 2004

## 	                  Talk Summary

- 1.  UAVs:  An important new platform to accomplish NOAA’s mission
- 2.  Potential roles for UAV’s in NOAA
-      Fisheries Monitoring
-      Ecosystem Assessment
-      Weather and Climate Research
-      **Climate Monitoring**
-      Operational Weather Prediction
- 3.  Importance of UAV’s for long term climate monitoring: GUPS

## UAVs are reaching viability for many applications, including earth observing.  

**Helios**

**Shear Balloon**

**Global Hawk**

**AEM in situ**

**Altair Predator B**

## NOAA Airborne Ocean Color Mapper

**ETL ocean color sensor suite as configured for planned Altair flights in February, 2004.**
_**Specifications: **_
**Weight ~20 lbs**
**Power ~50 Watts**

**Fisheries applications of airborne ocean color sensing includes chlorophyl-a and sea surface temperature mapping for primary production measurements. Regions of application include coastal and subtropical convergence zones. **
**< Example of chl-a data from manned aircraft flights of ETL ocean color sensor around Alaskan coastal waters, May 2003.**
**UAV operation is needed to provide the persistence necessary to map through cloud cover holes.**

## UAV-Based Environmental Monitoring & Mapping (March 2005)

**Airborne hyperspectral imaging provides the ability to discriminate (within a single pixel) between several types of natural or man-made materials. **
**Examples include benthic species mapping (e.g. corals), near-shore bathymetry, turbidity, and  algal blooms.**
**Spatial resolution of **
**~1 m or better is available with ~500 spectral samples spanning a spectral range**** of over 350 nm. **

**RGB Image**
**of  Molokai coast**

**RGB (1-4-9) **
**weighted coastal **
**image**

## Trace Gas Measurements

- Flight over Canada for CO2 study on June 12, 2003
-  Ozone stratospheric tracer
-  Nitrous Oxide tropospheric tracer
-  Inversely Correlated

- CMDL Ozone Instrument

- CMDL 2 channel Gas Chromatograph

## NOAA Passive Microwave Vertical 

**55 GHz**

**89 GHz**

**183 GHz**

**NOAA/ETL spectrometer modules with internal fast-switched absolute calibration. **

**Above spectrometers (plus two more under **
**development) provide full AMSU-A/B and NPOESS CMIS and ATMS tropospheric sounding compatibility.**

**NOAA Passive Microwave Vertical **
**Sounder for PacJet (March 2005)**

**Microwave sounders as installed in **
**NOAA PSR/S airborne radiometer sensor**

## NOAA/AL frost point instrument

- The  NOAA/AL frost point instrument was designed  to run unattended under the wing of NASA’s WB-57 .
- The instrument has completed  8 flights of  about six hours  each.
- An  aircraft rated sterling cooler provides cooling to 100 K . The  cooler avoids  consumables and provides
- a large  temperature gradient that improves the  response time.The vertical  pylon houses the optics and provides
- aerodynamic pumping of the sample volume. At the  bottom of the pylon is a boundary plate that  separates particles
- larger than  0.2 microns from the sampled air.

## Altair Demonstration Flight

**Altair Demonstration Flight**
**Mission Plan**
**Altair**
**General Atomics Corporation**

- Scientific Goals
-   Meteorological Parameters
-   Climate forcing and ozone depletion
-     from trace gases
-   Remote sensing of the ocean

- A rich diversity of atmospheric conditions are observable from Hawaii and California.  PV surfaces shows equatorial (violet) to polar air masses (red) at different altitudes (below) and cruise altitude (50 kft) on map (left).

## Slide 10

## Long Term Monitoring of the Atmosphere and Oceans

**is at the ****HEART**** of NOAA's mission . . . **
**With a few notable exceptions, we are doing poorly.**

## Do the observations show no global warming ?

- Congressional Testimony - Prof. Roger Pielke, Sr., July 25, 2002:
***“******. . .the models have failed to replicate the actual evolution of atmospheric temperatures over the time period 1970-2000.  Thus using the results of these models as the basis for assessments, much less for decisions, for the next several decades is not justified.”***

- Graph from T. Chase

**Do the observations show ****no global warming ****?**

## Although the upper air polar regions are warming, the tropics seem to be cooling as seen by the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) satellite, according to Christy and Spencer.  NO NET WARMING.

- Although the upper air polar regions are warming, the tropics seem to be cooling as seen by the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) satellite, according to Christy and Spencer.  NO NET WARMING.

## F. Wentz, using the same data finds the globe warming significantly in the troposphere (Approx. .2/decade)

- _[◄](slide7.xml)_

## Climate Monitoring: Problems with Current System

- Deep atmospheric and oceanic state (temperature, moisture etc.) poorly monitored
- 	*  It was assumed that weather measurements 	were good enough for climate – WRONG
- 	*  In situ measurements very limited over oceans 	and polar regions
- Atmosphere and ocean constituents (chemistry, aerosols, biology) poorly monitored over oceans and polar regions

## Over almost the entire oceans and polar regions there is low correlation between satellite and  radiosonde derived data.

**Over almost the entire oceans and polar regions there is low correlation between satellite and  radiosonde derived data.**
**This is not surprising because there are very few radiosondes taken over oceans and polar regions.**

*Radiosonde Data from Hadley Center*

*This means we have essentially no information on the vertical structure of the atmosphere, nor will we have 20 years from now.  **This type of information is crucial to climate prediction.*

## Long Term Monitoring of the Atmosphere and Oceans

-   Requirement:  Consistency through the decades
-   Requirement:  Global coverage, spatially unbiased
-   Requirement:  Best possible accuracy (available through in situ measurement)
-   Requirement:  Atmosphere and ocean coupling, also land, biosphere and ice surface interaction
-   Requirement:  All terms of climate energy balance equation (state, radiation, constituents etc.)

## At what scale does long term temperature change occur?

## Integrated

**    ****Global **
**          ****Observing**
- The global observing system must be designed to support the scientific questions inherent in long term climate diagnosis and prediction.
-  The strategic triad of global observing:
- Satellites – UAVs - Buoys

## The main idea of the Global Unified Profiling System is to take the most accurate possible profiles of geophysical quantities (e.g. temperature) from the stratosphere to deep in the ocean over as much of the earth as possible on a grid.

**The main idea of the ****Global Unified Profiling System**** is to take the most accurate possible profiles of geophysical quantities (e.g. temperature) from the stratosphere to deep in the ocean over as much of the earth as possible on a grid.**

**Notes:**
The idea of routinely monitoring on a grid from above with UAV’s, and in the ocean with buoys, allows dual use.  The UAVs would have remote sensing access to the ocean surface with signal strength 10 to 30 db stronger than current satellite capabilities.  Similarly, a global ocean buoy array could have some characteristics that are superior to the Navy’s existing hydrophone array (SOSUS).

## Dropsonde

- Starting from the existing dropwindsondes, a sonde can be developed that has the extremely high accuracy and time continuity needed for climate trends.

## Clouds, Radiation, Aerosols and Chemistry

- Another feature  of the operations concept is the ability of the aircraft to descend from 60,000 feet to near the surface to take detailed observations of chemistry, radiation, aerosols and clouds.  The aircraft could be equipped similar to NASA’s ER2 for in situ measurements.  Some examples of potential on-board instruments:

## Vertical Profiles

- In order to solve the vertical boundary value problem, detailed and accurate profiles of temperature, moisture, momentum, cloud and aerosol properties, as well as ocean heat exchange, will be needed.

## 1.  CCSP:  How much of the expected climate change is the consequence of feedback processes?

**WHAT IS THE CONTRIBUTION OF CLOUDS AND WATER VAPOR FEEDBACKS?**

## Adaptive Observations:

**Adaptive Observations:**
**Pacific Plus would test adaptive observations in conjunction with THORPex.**

## Development of Major Operational NOAA Platforms

- _Platform    __Initial Capability__      Demo    __Operations_
- Polar Orbiting    1958         1960-1968	1970
- Satellites	Explorer    TIROS/ESSA     NOAA 1
- Geostationary   1962	1966-1974     1975
- Satellites	ComSat             ATS         GOES
- UAVs 		  2002	             2005?	 2015?

## Unified Profiling System

**Unified Profiling System**

**Phase 3:  Pacific Plus**
**Operational:  2009-2012**

**Phase 2:  Global Unified Profiling System  (GUPS)**
**Operational: 2015-2100**