Results from the Development and Deployment of a UAS for Volcanic Plume and Surface Observation
Abstract
Instrumented unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are able to operate in airspaces that are otherwise too difficult or hazardous for manned aircraft such as volcanic plumes. In addition, UAS are more economical to construct, operate, and maintain than manned systems or larger UAS. In addition, repair and replacement costs of small unmanned aircraft are more reasonable particularly for these high value and high risk applications. Therefore, the use of UAS is well-suited to making targeted, in situ measurements of atmospheric chemical phenomenon to span the gaps in current data collection methods. These platforms have been shown to be capable of carrying a variety of sensors, including mass spectrometers, gas sensors, and basic atmospheric sensors. The wider use of these sensing capabilities is limited only by the current availability of airframes and avionics, which are not intended for use in carrying scientific instruments in harsh environments (high altitude, high winds, damaging particulates, etc.) involved in observing atmospheric chemical phenomena, such as volcanic plumes.
This presentation details results from the deployment of the S2 XT UAS conducting volcanic observations. This aircraft and associated payload was specifically designed to address these shortcomings of operations in difficult environments. The payload contains a wide array of sensors, providing measurement of atmospheric pressure, humidity, temperature, three-dimensional wind velocities, particulate size-frequency distribution and vertical ash concentration, trace gas concentration ( SO 2 , CO 2 and H 2 S), as well as RGB and thermal imagery. This is all contained within a 5 lb payload that has been tightly integrated with a durable, terrain-following unmanned aircraft that can be used in harsh environments. This S2 XT UAS can provide targeted, in situ observations in unimproved areas and can be operated from altitudes up to 15,000 ft. The combined capabilities of the aircraft as well as sensor payload have been demonstrated through a field campaign in Hawaii, and the results of this work will be presented during this session.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMNH14A..03W
- Keywords:
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- 9805 Instruments useful in three or more fields;
- GENERAL OR MISCELLANEOUS;
- 1920 Emerging informatics technologies;
- INFORMATICS;
- 4314 Mathematical and computer modeling;
- NATURAL HAZARDS;
- 4333 Disaster risk analysis and assessment;
- NATURAL HAZARDS