The NCAR/NOAA Global Hawk Dropsonde System
A new system enabling the remote deployment of up to 90 dropsondes from the NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft was developed through a partnership between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and NOAA. The dropsonde is an instrument, about the size of an empty paper towel roll, that measures the temperature, pressure, and humidity of the atmosphere along with the wind speed and direction while parachuting down from the aircraft from which it was launched. By using the Global Hawk, the dropsondes can be launched from altitudes up to 65,000 ft, higher than most traditional manned aircraft, during flights in excess of 24 hours. To operate from the Global Hawk, a smaller, modified dropsonde along with an entirely new system for their storage and launch had to be developed. In a new Physical Sciences Laboratory-led paper to be published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, NOAA, NCAR and NASA researchers describe the components and operation of the system and illustrate its unique capabilities through highlights of data application to research on the arctic atmosphere, atmospheric rivers, and tropical cyclones.
Over 2700 dropsondes have now been deployed from the Global Hawk during four major research campaigns conducted since 2011. The high-quality data has been invaluable for diverse research studies, and data processed in real time has been used by forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and assimilated in the NOAA operational (HWRF and GFS) weather forecast models. The dropsonde system has attained a high level of maturity and is essentially ready for operational use should the Global Hawk ever be used in that manner.
Deployment of these instruments from a platform like the Global Hawk means that a large number of otherwise unavailable high-resolution and high-quality observations can be collected throughout hazardous weather systems like hurricanes and over wide expanses of remote and hazardous regions like the Arctic. The capability is unique in that the dropsondes can sample a greater vertical and horizontal extent of the atmosphere/storms than possible using existing NOAA manned aircraft at a higher vertical resolution and accuracy than possible from satellites. Through the NOAA Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT) mission led by the NOAA UAS Program, use of the observations was found to have the potential to improve hurricane forecasts by up to 15 percent.
Authors of "The NCAR/NOAA Global Hawk Dropsonde System" are: Gary Wick and Paul Neiman of the ESRL Physical Sciences Laboratory, Terrence Hock and Holger Vömel of NCAR, Michael Black of NOAA/AOML, and Ryan Spackman of NASA.
A new system enabling the remote deployment of up to 90 dropsondes from the NASA Global Hawk unmanned aircraft was developed through a partnership between the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and NOAA. The dropsonde is an instrument, about the size of an empty paper towel roll, that measures the temperature, pressure, and humidity of the atmosphere along with the wind speed and direction while parachuting down from the aircraft from which it was launched. By using the Global Hawk, the dropsondes can be launched from altitudes up to 65,000 ft, higher than most traditional manned aircraft, during flights in excess of 24 hours. To operate from the Global Hawk, a smaller, modified dropsonde along with an entirely new system for their storage and launch had to be developed. In a new Physical Sciences Laboratory-led paper to be published in the Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, NOAA, NCAR and NASA researchers describe the components and operation of the system and illustrate its unique capabilities through highlights of data application to research on the arctic atmosphere, atmospheric rivers, and tropical cyclones.
Over 2700 dropsondes have now been deployed from the Global Hawk during four major research campaigns conducted since 2011. The high-quality data has been invaluable for diverse research studies, and data processed in real time has been used by forecasters at the National Hurricane Center and assimilated in the NOAA operational (HWRF and GFS) weather forecast models. The dropsonde system has attained a high level of maturity and is essentially ready for operational use should the Global Hawk ever be used in that manner.
Deployment of these instruments from a platform like the Global Hawk means that a large number of otherwise unavailable high-resolution and high-quality observations can be collected throughout hazardous weather systems like hurricanes and over wide expanses of remote and hazardous regions like the Arctic. The capability is unique in that the dropsondes can sample a greater vertical and horizontal extent of the atmosphere/storms than possible using existing NOAA manned aircraft at a higher vertical resolution and accuracy than possible from satellites. Through the NOAA Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology (SHOUT) mission led by the NOAA UAS Program, use of the observations was found to have the potential to improve hurricane forecasts by up to 15 percent.
Authors of "The NCAR/NOAA Global Hawk Dropsonde System" are: Gary Wick and Paul Neiman of the ESRL Physical Sciences Laboratory, Terrence Hock and Holger Vömel of NCAR, Michael Black of NOAA/AOML, and Ryan Spackman of NASA.