Small, uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) for atmospheric research offer opportunities to make unique meteorological measurements in the lowest layer of the Earth’s atmosphere. ARL’s Atmospheric Transport and Dispersion Division (ATDD) in Oak Ridge, TN has sUAS that are used to measure how temperature, humidity and wind change with height. The sUAS are also used to map the temperature of, and how much radiation is reflected back into space from, the Earth’s surface.

ARL’s Fleet of Aircraft

ARL presently has four sUAS, including two multi-rotor copters and two fixed-wing aircraft. The primary purpose of the CopterSonde is to obtain vertical profiles of temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed and wind direction. The APH-28 has instrumentation to sample in-situ temperature and humidity, but also has a downward-looking camera to obtain detailed information about small-scale horizontal variations in land surface temperature. The fixed-wing aircraft are BlackSwift Technologies model S2s and have a longer flight endurance than the rotary-wing aircraft. These aircraft have payload instruments to sample incoming and reflected radiation and land surface temperature, as well as to measure in-situ air temperature and relative humidity.

Field Studies

ATDD has conducted over 850 UAS flights during short-term field campaigns across the U.S. and to help support forecasting decisions at local National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Offices (WFO) since 2015.

Most recently, in September 2024, NOAA/ARL participated in the small-UAS Coordination for Atmospheric Low-Level Environmental Sampling (SCALES) campaign in northeastern Oklahoma. This was a component of the International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) flight week campaign to support the World Meteorological Organization’s UAS demonstration campaign. During SCALES, teams conducted coordinated UAS profiles to study changes in near-surface atmospheric processes occurring after sundown. Results from this work are helping improve weather models in areas with gently-rolling topography and to support studies on land-atmosphere interactions and boundary-layer processes. 

Similarly, ARL has used UAS in related campaigns over the past ten years across the U.S. to obtain high-resolution information of near-surface temperature, humidity, and wind fields. These deployments have included the following:

• 2020 Oliver Springs, TN: Quasi-routine flights to support weather forecasting operations at the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Forecast Office in Morristown, TN
• 2019 Park Falls, WI: Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors (CHEESEHEAD) 
• 2019 Albuquerque, NM: UAS profiles to assist in weather forecasting at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
• 2019 Avon Park, FL: Assessing the ability of UAS to operate beyond visual line-of-sight
• 2017 Lamont, OK: Land Atmosphere Feedback Experiment (LAFE)
• 2017 Ten Mile, TN: Great American eclipse
• 2016-2017 Alabama: Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment-Southeast (VORTEX-SE)