METEOROLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR RV FLIGHT TESTING

YHE OBJECTIVE OF THIS RESEARCH IS TO EVALUATE REQUIREMENTS FOR A REMOTE WEATHER SAMPLING SYSTEM FOR USE ON REMOTELY PILOTED VEHICLES (RPV). THE WEATHER SAMPLING SYSTEM IS TO MEASURE CLOUD STATISTICS, PARTICLE SIZE/WATER CONTENT INFORMATION, DENSITY AND, IF POSSIBLE, WIND INFORMATION. THE RESEARCH SUPPORTED UNDER THIS PROGRAMWILL PERFORM ANALYSES AND DEVELOP AN INSTRUMENTATION HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE DESIGN TO MEASURE THE FREESTREAM PARTICULAR WATER CONTENT FROM AN RPV. THE INSTRUMENT MUST PROVIDE A REALTIME READOUT FOR TELEMETERING TO GROUND DATA CLOUDS WITH EQUIVALENT WATER CONTENT RANGE OF 10-3 GRAM/M3 TO 1 GRAM/M3. SRS' APPROACH TO WEATHER PARTICLE SAMPLING IS THE USE OF ITS PARTICLE MEASUREMENT RADAR (PMR) CONCEPT. THE PMR CONCEPT FOR WEATHER SAMPLING EMPLOYS A MINIATURE, BISTATIC, CONTINUOUS WAVE (CW) RADAR WHICH RELIES ON RESOLUTION AFFORDED BY THE INTERSECTION ANTENNA BEAMS TO DETECT INDIVIDUAL WEATHER PARTICLES IN THE FREESTREAM. THE USE OF MULTIPLE RECEIVE BEAMS IN A NEAR ORTHOGONAL PLANE PROVIDES WIND INFORMATION. PARTICLE SIZE IS MEASURED AS A FUNCTION OF SCATTERED SIGNAL STRENGTH. THE STATISTICS OF THE WEATHER PARTICLES ARE DETERMINED BY AVERAGING A LARGE NUMBER OF MEASUREMENTS PROVIDED BY PMR. THE FEASIBILITY OF PMR IS BASED ON THE AVAILABILITY OF SOLID STATE RF DEVICES IN THE FREQUENCY RANGE OF 100 GHZ, LIGHT WEIGHT PRINTED CIRCUIT ANTENNA ARRAYS, AND SINGLE CHIP SIGNAL AND DATA PROCESSORS. THE USE OF THESE ADVANCED COMPONENTS WILL RESULT IN A HIGH QUALITY WEATHER SAMPLING SYSTEM THAT WEIGHTS ONLY A FEW POUNDS AND CONSUMES LOW POWER.