Article
Biology
Lilian Lieber, Roland Langrock, W. Alex M. Nimmo-Smith
Summary: The study highlights the importance of understanding physical mechanisms underlying seabird foraging, particularly focusing on how turbulent features in the water can serve as foraging cues. Using a drone-based approach, they were able to track surface-foraging terns and correlate their behavior with dynamic turbulent surface flow features, providing insight into the factors influencing seabird foraging behavior.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Remote Sensing
Timofey Filkin, Natalia Sliusar, Marco Ritzkowski, Marion Huber-Humer
Summary: This study explores the use of aerial imagery from UAVs for monitoring and control of municipal solid waste landfills. It demonstrates that most operational requirements for landfills can be monitored using unmanned aerial imagery, and discusses the advantages of air imagery over space imagery and ground inspections. Overall, the research suggests that unmanned aerial imagery has great potential for waste landfill management.
Article
Automation & Control Systems
Nursultan Imanberdiyev, Sumil Sood, Dogan Kircali, Erdal Kayacan
Summary: In this paper, a lightweight and low inertia dual-arm manipulator with a center of gravity balancing mechanism is presented for aerial manipulation missions. The system is designed to be easily attached to different multirotors without major modifications, and features adjustable center of gravity, independent arm control, and extended operational capability. The proposed design is robust and demonstrates good stability and performance through finite element analysis and experimental flight tests.
Article
Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Choon Seng Tan, Douglas L. Van Bossuyt, Britta Hale
Summary: The proliferation of commercial Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) poses potential threats to traditional perimeter defenses of civilian and military facilities, prompting the need for a systems engineering methodology to evaluate and analyze Counter-UAS (CUAS) effectiveness and limitations. By employing Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) tools, this research proposes a systematic approach to understand CUAS operating environments, dominant factors, and impacts on stakeholders, as well as to identify configuration candidates for optimizing CUAS performance to meet stakeholder requirements.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Geraldo Mulato De Lima Filho, Angelo Passaro, Guilherme Moura Delfino, Leandro De Santana, Herman Monsuur
Summary: This study introduces and evaluates an operational planning procedure for time-critical maritime unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) search missions. By combining neural network classification and vessel clustering, the procedure effectively identifies target vessels and prioritizes visitation. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of this robust and agile approach in quickly finding unknown target vessels.
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Xingling Shao, Yi Xia, Zewei Mei, Wendong Zhang
Summary: This paper proposes a model-guided reinforcement learning algorithm for UAVs to enclose a maneuverable target within a fixed time. The algorithm ensures collision-free behaviors and reinforced tracking capability. It introduces a fixed-time enclosing controller, reward functions, and a training procedure to enhance efficiency and generalization.
AEROSPACE SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Biology
Samuel Naab, Emily Weigel
Summary: This article discusses the exponential growth of drone technology and its potential benefits in K-12 classrooms, emphasizing the importance of engaging students and providing resources for beginners to effectively incorporate drones into education.
AMERICAN BIOLOGY TEACHER
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Rachel Lugassi, Alexandra Blank, Irina Rogozovsky, Kevin Ohneiser, Albert Ansmann, Yoav Linzon, Alexandra Chudnovsky
Summary: Implementing a mobile measurement device to accurately monitor complex pollution in the city is still a challenge. Current research proposes the use of UAV-based platforms for measurements, but questions remain regarding the representativeness of these measurements and the impact of UAVs on data quality. In this study, a UAV-based platform is developed and tested for measuring meteorological and air quality parameters, such as air temperature, relative humidity, and PM2.5. The researchers also investigate the effects of different instrumentation setups and propeller rotations on the measured parameters.
ATMOSPHERIC ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Dedi Yang, Bailey D. Morrison, Wouter Hantson, Amy L. Breen, Andrew McMahon, Qianyu Li, Verity G. Salmon, Daniel J. Hayes, Shawn P. Serbin
Summary: The Arctic is undergoing rapid climate change, impacting tundra ecosystems with high heterogeneity. High-resolution data collected using a multi-sensor UAS revealed that deciduous tall shrubs have a strong cooling effect and can potentially reduce the cover of low-stature plant types. A random forest model showed that fine-scale plant functional type composition explains a significant portion of landscape-scale variation in canopy height and thermoregulation.
ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Engineering, Mechanical
Sangheon Lee, Wonmo Chung, Hungsun Son
Summary: This research presents a new framework for identifying the dynamic characteristics of a multirotor unmanned aerial vehicle, particularly applied to an arm stretchable morphing MUAV. The framework consists of three sequentially operated steps, utilizing Extended Kalman Filter to estimate unknown parameters and validate the identification results through experiments and numerical simulations. Identified parameters are further utilized in experiments to maximize control performance with the help of particle swarm optimization.
MECHANICAL SYSTEMS AND SIGNAL PROCESSING
(2022)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Joby M. Prince M. Czarnecki, Jordan M. M. Shockley, Louis Wasson, Xiaofei Li
Summary: This study proposes a new method to identify weather windows for UAV operations to avoid the negative impact of cloudy skies on image quality. It is found that early and late season, as well as early morning and late afternoon, are the most favorable windows for UAV operations. Economic analysis shows that despite the presence of poor sky conditions (60% of total hours), UAV applications in agriculture are still financially beneficial. Evaluation of two operational scenarios reveals that the prices of UAV operations are competitive with manned aircraft for average fields.
PRECISION AGRICULTURE
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Courtney Pegus, Shannon Atkinson, Terry Quinn, Sanjay Pyare
Summary: Long-term monitoring programs to evaluate climate-driven changes to tidewater glaciers in Alaska, which are important habitats for harbor seals, are mainly conducted by costly aerial surveys. This study evaluates the accuracy of using unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to collect image data for measuring the dimensions of floating icebergs. The results show that both a built-in 20-megapixel camera and a consumer-grade 16-megapixel camera on UAS can accurately capture images for height measurements of floating and grounded icebergs.
Article
Remote Sensing
Caroline M. Gevaert, Mariana Belgiu
Summary: This study finds that using landscape metrics can measure the similarity between training images and unseen testing images, and this similarity is correlated to the performance of the classifier on the unseen images. The use of landscape metrics can help users determine whether a trained model is suitable for application to a new area.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2022)
Review
Green & Sustainable Science & Technology
Justyna Jonca, Marcin Pawnuk, Yaroslav Bezyk, Adalbert Arsen, Izabela Sowka
Summary: Ambient air quality is a complex issue affected by various factors. Drone-borne analytical instrumentation can monitor air pollution at proper temporal and spatial resolution, with great potential for future applications. Future research should focus on improving the performance of existing analytical instrumentation and addressing the limitations of payload capacity and flight time of drones.
Article
Computer Science, Information Systems
Silvia Mignardi, Chiara Buratti
Summary: In recent years, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for wireless communications has shown promising potential in various applications. This article discusses the analysis of a beyond-5G network, where a UAV acts as an unmanned aerial base station (UAB) to collect data from user equipments (UEs) in an urban area. By employing a stochastic approach, the system performance is mathematically devised, taking into account various factors such as uplink transmission protocol constraints, random access procedure, limited radio resources, and coverage issues during UAV flight. The mathematical model is validated through simulations and can be utilized to optimize system parameters.
IEEE INTERNET OF THINGS JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
M. Wendisch, M. Brueckner, S. Crewell, A. Ehrlich, J. Notholt, C. Luepkes, A. Macke, J. P. Burrows, A. Rinke, J. Quaas, M. Maturilli, V. Schemann, M. D. Shupe, E. F. Akansu, C. Barrientos-Velasco, K. Baerfuss, A-M Blechschmidt, K. Block, I. Bougoudis, H. Bozem, C. Boeckmann, A. Bracher, H. Bresson, L. Bretschneider, M. Buschmann, D. G. Chechin, J. Chylik, S. Dahlke, H. Deneke, K. Dethloff, T. Donth, W. Dorn, R. Dupuy, K. Ebell, U. Egerer, R. Engelmann, O. Eppers, R. Gerdes, R. Gierens, I. V. Gorodetskaya, M. Gottschalk, H. Griesche, V. M. Gryanik, D. Handorf, B. Harm-Altstaedter, J. Hartmann, M. Hartmann, B. Heinold, A. Herber, H. Herrmann, G. Heygster, I. Hoeschel, Z. Hofmann, J. Hoelemann, A. Huenerbein, S. Jafariserajehlou, E. Jaekel, C. Jacobi, M. Janout, F. Jansen, O. Jourdan, Z. Juranyi, H. Kalesse-Los, T. Kanzow, R. Kaethner, L. L. Kliesch, M. Klingebiel, E. M. Knudsen, T. Kovacs, W. Koertke, D. Krampe, J. Kretzschmar, D. Kreyling, B. Kulla, D. Kunkel, A. Lampert, M. Lauer, L. Lelli, A. von Lerber, O. Linke, U. Loehnert, M. Lonardi, S. N. Losa, M. Losch, M. Maahn, M. Mech, L. Mei, S. Mertes, E. Metzner, D. Mewes, J. Michaelis, G. Mioche, M. Moser, K. Nakoudi, R. Neggers, R. Neuber, T. Nomokonova, J. Oelker, I. Papakonstantinou-Presvelou, F. Paetzold, V. Pefanis, C. Pohl, M. van Pinxteren, A. Radovan, M. Rhein, M. Rex, A. Richter, N. Risse, C. Ritter, P. Rostosky, V. V. Rozanov, E. Ruiz Donoso, P. Saavedra Garfias, M. Salzmann, J. Schacht, M. Schaefer, J. Schneider, N. Schnierstein, P. Seifert, S. Seo, H. Siebert, M. A. Soppa, G. Spreen, I. S. Stachlewska, J. Stapf, F. Stratmann, I. Tegen, C. Viceto, C. Voigt, M. Vountas, A. Walbroel, M. Walter, B. Wehner, H. Wex, S. Willmes, M. Zanatta, S. Zeppenfeld
Summary: The (AC)(3) project, established in 2016, collected a wealth of data on the physical, chemical, and meteorological properties of the Arctic atmosphere, cryosphere, and upper ocean. Short-term changes and long-term trends in Arctic climate parameters have been identified, such as increased atmospheric moistening, regional storm activities, winter warming in specific regions, and decreasing sea ice thickness and snow depth on sea ice. The project also made advancements in atmospheric-ocean and radiative transfer models, and discovered local marine/biogenic sources for cloud condensation nuclei and ice nucleating particles. Cross-cutting activities are being developed to further synthesize the results and answer key questions.
BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Jeffrey M. Forbes, Xiaoli Zhang, Scott E. Palo
Summary: Ultra-fast Kelvin waves (UFKWs) are a mechanism for connecting the tropical troposphere with the mesosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere. We utilized solutions to the linearized wave equations to study the vertical propagation of UFKWs in the dissipative thermosphere. We found that molecular dissipation and ion drag can influence the amplitude and structure of UFKWs.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SPACE PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Environmental
Nurun Nahar Lata, Zezhen Cheng, Darielle Dexheimer, Damao Zhang, Fan Mei, Swarup China
Summary: Arctic aerosols have a significant impact on aerosol radiation and aerosol-cloud interactions. This study used a tethered balloon system to investigate the vertical variability of size resolved aerosol composition at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The results showed that both background and polluted conditions led to broadened aerosol size distributions and suggested potential roles of sulfate and carbonaceous particles in cloud processing and modulation of Arctic cloud properties.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Chemistry, Analytical
Troy D. Thornberry, Ru-Shan Gao, Steven J. Ciciora, Laurel A. Watts, Richard J. McLaughlin, Angelina Leonardi, Karen H. Rosenlof, Brian M. Argrow, Jack S. Elston, Maciej Stachura, Joshua Fromm, W. Alan Brewer, Paul Schroeder, Michael Zucker
Summary: Uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) are ideal for gathering high-resolution wildfire measurements, but have limited payload capacity. The NightFOX project, funded by NOAA, developed miniaturized scientific instruments for wildfire-related measurements that meet the weight and size constraints of UAS payloads. The system includes three optical instruments with five sensors for mapping wildfires and measuring fire radiative power, as well as a GPS-aided inertial navigation module. The system has been successfully tested on a small UAS and a crewed aircraft.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Benjamin Kirbus, Sofie Tiedeck, Andrea Camplani, Jan Chylik, Susanne Crewell, Sandro Dahlke, Kerstin Ebell, Irina Gorodetskaya, Hannes Griesche, Doerthe Handorf, Ines Hoeschel, Melanie Lauer, Roel Neggers, Janna Rueckert, Matthew D. Shupe, Gunnar Spreen, Andreas Walbroel, Manfred Wendisch, Annette Rinke
Summary: Distinct events of warm and moist air intrusions from mid-latitudes have significant impacts on the Arctic climate system. A record-breaking warm air intrusion observed during the MOSAiC expedition in mid-April 2020 is analyzed using Eulerian and Lagrangian frameworks. The intrusion is characterized by two distinct pathways, Siberian and Atlantic, and it has a strong positive effect on the surface energy balance. Model experiments show that moisture availability has a limited impact on the liquid water path in the central Arctic, while increasing cloud condensation nuclei concentrations enhance cloud water content and deepen the atmospheric boundary layer.
FRONTIERS IN EARTH SCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Nina Maherndl, Maximilian Maahn, Frederic Tridon, Jussi Leinonen, Davide Ori, Stefan Kneifel
Summary: This study develops a parameterization model that is able to evaluate the precipitation process in numerical weather models. By analyzing a simulated dataset, the researchers propose the scattering properties of different types of ice particles. The parameterization model shows small biases in radar observations and accurately simulates the scattering properties under various precipitation levels.
QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Christopher J. J. Cox, Michael R. R. Gallagher, Matthew D. D. Shupe, P. Ola G. Persson, Amy Solomon, Christopher W. W. Fairall, Thomas Ayers, Byron Blomquist, Ian M. M. Brooks, Dave Costa, Andrey Grachev, Daniel Gottas, Jennifer K. K. Hutchings, Mark Kutchenreiter, Jesse Leach, Sara M. M. Morris, Victor Morris, Jackson Osborn, Sergio Pezoa, Andreas Preusser, Laura D. D. Riihimaki, Taneil Uttal
Summary: The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) was a yearlong expedition that documented the annual cycle of processes impacting the Arctic atmosphere-ice-ocean system. Measurements of the sea ice's thermodynamic and dynamic evolution were of central importance. This manuscript provides a guide for researchers to access and use the data products acquired during the expedition.
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Changwei Liu, Qinghua Yang, Matthew D. Shupe, Yan Ren, Shijie Peng, Bo Han, Dake Chen
Summary: Turbulent intermittency over the Arctic sea-ice surface was investigated using data collected during the Arctic Climate expedition. The study found that the strength of intermittency increases under specific surface wind speed, wind speed gradient, and air temperature gradient conditions. The analysis also revealed that strong low-level jets favor surface turbulent motions with weak intermittency, while strong temperature inversions above the surface layer lead to strong intermittency.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
G. Saliba, D. M. Bell, K. J. Suski, J. D. Fast, D. Imre, G. Kulkarni, F. Mei, J. H. Mulmenstadt, M. Pekour, J. E. Shilling, J. Tomlinson, A. C. Varble, J. Wang, J. A. Thornton, A. Zelenyuk
Summary: Shallow convective clouds are common and important in the global climate system, but the uncertainties in aerosol-cloud interactions for convective clouds pose challenges to climate model predictions. This study provides aircraft-based measurements of individual particle size and composition, revealing significant contributions from larger and sulfate-rich particles in cloud droplet residuals. The study also highlights the seasonal differences in aerosol activation fraction and emphasizes the importance of measuring particle-by-particle variability to accurately represent their activation into shallow cumuli cloud droplets.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE-ATMOSPHERES
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Gunilla Svensson, Sonja Murto, Matthew D. Shupe, Felix Pithan, Linus Magnusson, Jonathan J. Day, James D. Doyle, Ian A. Renfrew, Thomas Spengler, Timo Vihma
Summary: During the MOSAiC expedition in the spring period, efforts were made to increase the radiosounding frequency to study warm air intrusions in the Arctic. Two episodes of increased surface temperatures were observed during a targeted observing period. The circulation patterns guided the warm air into the Arctic region through three different transport pathways. The study showed discrepancies between MOSAiC observations and ERA5 reanalysis in representing small-scale processes, highlighting the need for improvement in numerical weather prediction and climate models.
ELEMENTA-SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shijie Peng, Qinghua Yang, Matthew D. Shupe, Xingya Xi, Bo Han, Dake Chen, Sandro Dahlke, Changwei Liu
Summary: By analyzing the dataset, we improved the algorithm and studied the characteristics and variability of the atmospheric boundary layer height (ABLH) in the Arctic region. The annual variation of ABLH is primarily controlled by the evolution of ABL thermal structure. Meteorological and turbulence variables also play a significant role in ABLH variation. In addition, the ABLH during the MOSAiC expedition is more suppressed than during the SHEBA experiment in the summer, indicating large variability in the Arctic ABL structure.
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Johannes G. M. Barten, Laurens N. Ganzeveld, Gert-Jan Steeneveld, Byron W. Blomquist, Helene Angot, Stephen D. Archer, Ludovic Bariteau, Ivo Beck, Matthew Boyer, Peter von der Gathen, Detlev Helmig, Dean Howard, Jacques Hueber, Hans-Werner Jacobi, Tuija Jokinen, Tiia Laurila, Kevin M. Posman, Lauriane Quelever, Julia Schmale, Matthew D. Shupe, Maarten C. Krol
Summary: We quantified the impact of O-3 deposition to the Arctic sea ice on the PBL O-3 concentration and budget. The surface resistance on the order of 20,000 s m(-1) was found to be higher than traditionally used values in many atmospheric chemistry and transport models. The SCM accurately represented the yearly cycle but failed to capture observed springtime ozone depletion events.
ELEMENTA-SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Radiance Calmer, Gijs de Boer, Jonathan Hamilton, Dale Lawrence, Melinda A. Webster, Nicholas Wright, Matthew D. Shupe, Christopher J. Cox, John J. Cassano
Summary: This study used the HELiX uncrewed aircraft system to analyze the albedo and melt pond fraction of the central Arctic sea ice during the summer of 2020. The results showed that the surface albedo changed from high values to lower values as the season progressed. The study also demonstrated the significance of sample area in near-surface observations of melt pond fraction and its influence on satellite observations.
ELEMENTA-SCIENCE OF THE ANTHROPOCENE
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Francesca Gallo, Janek Uin, Kevin J. Sanchez, Richard H. Moore, Jian Wang, Robert Wood, Fan Mei, Connor Flynn, Stephen Springston, Eduardo B. Azevedo, Chongai Kuang, Allison C. Aiken
Summary: The eastern North Atlantic (ENA) is a region dominated by pristine marine environment and subtropical marine boundary layer clouds. Under unperturbed atmospheric conditions, the regional aerosol regime in the ENA varies seasonally due to different seasonal surface-ocean biogenic emissions, removal processes, and meteorological regimes. However, during periods when the marine boundary layer aerosol in the ENA is impacted by particles transported from continental sources, aerosol properties within the marine boundary layer change significantly, affecting the concentration of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN).
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY AND PHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences
Christopher R. Niedek, Fan Mei, Maria A. Zawadowicz, Zihua Zhu, Beat Schmid, Qi Zhang
Summary: The development of a micronebulization AMS technique allows for offline chemical analysis of airborne particles and droplets using small sample volumes. This technique enables the quantification of nanogram levels of organic and inorganic substances. It has been successfully applied to analyze filter and impactor samples collected from uncrewed atmospheric measurement platforms.
ATMOSPHERIC MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
(2023)
