120-X-2 Unmanned Aircraft System-Borne Atmospheric & Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Sensing

To capture critical weather and SST data in the Tropical Cyclone Boundary Layer (TCBL), Piasecki Aircraft proposes to evaluate existing meteorological sensor packages, integrate new off-the-shelf MEMS sensors, and design an air-launched UAS to improve the resolution of observations captured in the TCBL. Capturing latent and sensible heat fluxes can be achieved reliably with a powered UAS (compared to a dropsonde) through the ability to revisit a previous flight path and collect a new set of measurements. The challenge of measuring wind vector, latent and sensible heat flux, and SST in the TCBL is approached through the adaptation and improvement of existing methods that have been demonstrated in small scale aboard a UAS by team members. The sensor package and UAS meeting the TCBL observation requirements will be documented, the power and communications links defined, and system cost estimates for prototype and production variants will be produced in Phase I. A specific focus of the Phase I work is to show feasibility of a mass production approach for UAS fabrication such that the resulting system is competitive with existing dropsondes in terms of cost and measurement capabilities.