Wind Estimation in the Lower Atmosphere Using Multirotor Aircraft

Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly used to study atmospheric structure and dynamics. While much emphasis has been on the development of fixed-wing unmanned aircraft for atmospheric investigations, the use of multirotor aircraft is relatively unexplored, especially for capturing atmospheric wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and oceanic technology 2017-05, Vol.34 (5), p.1183-1191
Main Authors: Palomaki, Ross T., Rose, Nathan T., van den Bossche, Michael, Sherman, Thomas J., De Wekker, Stephan F. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aircraft
Aircraft components
Anemometers
Atmosphere
Atmospheric boundary layer
Atmospheric structure
Balloons
Boundary layers
Data collection
Direction
Dynamic structural analysis
Dynamics
Environmental science
Estimates
Hovering
Lower atmosphere
Profiling
Research methodology
Sonic anemometers
Studies
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Unmanned aircraft
Vertical profiling
Wind
Wind estimation
Wind speed
Winds
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Summary:Unmanned aerial vehicles are increasingly used to study atmospheric structure and dynamics. While much emphasis has been on the development of fixed-wing unmanned aircraft for atmospheric investigations, the use of multirotor aircraft is relatively unexplored, especially for capturing atmospheric winds. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the efficacy of estimating wind speed and direction with 1) a direct approach using a sonic anemometer mounted on top of a hexacopter and 2) an indirect approach using attitude data from a quadcopter. The data are collected by the multirotor aircraft hovering 10 m above ground adjacent to one or more sonic anemometers. Wind speed and direction show good agreement with sonic anemometer measurements in the initial experiments. Typical errors in wind speed and direction are smaller than 0.5 and 30°, respectively. Multirotor aircraft provide a promising alternative to traditional platforms for vertical profiling in the atmospheric boundary layer, especially in conditions where a tethered balloon system is typically deployed.
ISSN:0739-0572
1520-0426
DOI:10.1175/JTECH-D-16-0177.1