College of Aviation Research Projects

​The primary objective of this proposal is to use uncrewed aircraft technology and atmospheric profilers to measure turbulence in the tropical cyclone (TC) boundary layer and to use those measurements to improve NOAA’s operational models.

​Over the past decade, NOAA has deployed low-altitude small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) from the WP-3D (P-3) to improve operational situational awareness for tropical cyclones (TC), enhance parameterization routines in NOAA forecast models for TC structure and intensity change, and NOAA’s operational data assimilation methods. sUAS sample near the air-sea boundary, where energy and momentum are exchanged with the sea and where severe winds at landfall can directly affect the lives and property of millions of Americans every year. Even though this is a critical region of a TC, detailed analyses of atmospheric turbulence below 500-m altitude are limited due to safety concerns and other logistical constraints that make in-situ data collection within the lowest and most dangerous areas of the hurricane prohibitive. Enhanced, reliable, and high-resolution observations in the TC boundary layer are necessary to address this critical data void. This proposal will seek to take measurements of turbulence in the TC boundary layer using sUAS as well as a new, versatile atmospheric profiler called StreamSonde.