Using Unmanned Aircraft for Airborne

Science:
An Introduction
Presented by:
Brenda L. Mulac
NASA Liaison, FAA Unmanned Aircraft Program Office

Student Airborne Research Program (SARP)

UC Irvine
13 July 2009
 Overview
• Unmanned Aircraft 101
– What is a UAS?
– Types of UAS
• UAS and Science Applications
– Why use UAS for science
– Applications
– Instrumentation
– Example past missions
– Current and Future NASA missions
• Challenges to Using UAS
– Technical
– Regulatory
Unmanned Aircraft 101
 Unmanned Aircraft 101:
What is a UAS?
• Unmanned Aircraft System
– Aircraft and payloads (the UAV)
– Command and Control System (ie GCS)
– Communications architecture
Beyond Line of Sight

UAV

Line of Sight

User Community SATCOM Link

Control System
 Unmanned Aircraft 101:
Types of UAS
• Various sizes and capabilities
UAS Wingspan Endurance Payload Speed
Wasp 0.72m 0.75hr ---- 14m/s
Aerosonde 2.9m 30hr 5.3kg 26m/s
Viking 400 6.1m 10-12hr 30kg 29m/s
Ikhana 20m 24hr 1360kg 113m/s
Global Hawk 35.4m 30hr 907kg 172m/s

NASA Global Hawk NASA Ikhana

AAI Aerosonde
 Unmanned Aircraft 101:
Types of UAS
• Different Pilot/Control types:
• Remote Control (RC)
• Standard hobby style

Pilot-Operator

Remotely Piloted
 Unmanned Aircraft
and
Science Applications
 UAS and Science Applications:
Why use UAS?
• Dull Dirty Dangerous
– Some missions require long, repetitive, precise flight
lines
• Fault line mapping
• Topographic surveys
– Flights into extremely remote areas
• Arctic ice applications
– Flying through volcanic plumes
– Hurricane boundary layer flights
• Long duration missions
– Diurnal cycle
– Hurricane monitoring
– Plume tracking
• Slow speeds – flux measurements
 UAS and Science Applications:
Applications
• Some earth science applications identified by
scientists
• Repeat Pass Interferometry
• Cloud and Aerosol Measurements
• Stratospheric Ozone Chemistry
• Tropospheric Pollution and Air Quality
• Water Vapor and Total Water Meas.
• Coastal Ocean Observations
• Active Fire, Emissions, and Plume
Assess.
• O2 and CO2 Flux Measurements
• Vegetation Structure, Composition, …
• Aerosol, Cloud, and Precipitation Dist.
• Glacier and Ice Sheet Dynamics
• Radiation - Vertical Profiles of
Shortwave...
• Ice Sheet Thickness and Surface Def.
• Imaging Spectroscopy
• Topographic Mapping
• Gravitational Acceleration Measures
• Antarctic Exploration Surveyor
• Magnetic Fields Measurements
• Cloud Properties
• River Discharge
• Snow – Liquid Water Equivalents
• Soil Moisture and Freeze/Thaw States
• Cloud Microphysics/Properties
• Focused Observations – Extreme Weather
• Forecast Initialization
• Hurricane Genesis, Evolution, and
Landfall
• Physical Oceanography
• Tracking Transport and Evolution of
Poll.
• Clouds/ Aerosol/ Gas/ Radiation Inter.
• Long Time Scale Vertical Profiling of
Atmos.
• Global 3D Continuous Measurement
• Transport and Chemical Evolution
 UAS and Science Applications:
Instrumentation
• Radars
– Synthetic Aperature Radar
• Lidars
• In-situ measurements
– SO2, Ozone, temperature, pressure,
humidity
• Particle measurements
– Video Ice Particle Sensor (VIPS)
– Particle counters
• Pyrometers, radiometers
• Etc
 UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions - Barrow
• NSF-Funded
research in Barrow,
Alaska conducted
by CU and
Aerosonde NA
– 5 year effort 2000-
2005
– Ice mapping
– Atmospheric
measurements
– Cloud physics
– Proof of concept
 UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions - Barrow
• Summer 2002
Deployment
• Infrared pyrometer on
Aerosonde
• Scales of variability in
SST better understood

J. Inoue, J. Curry, “Applications of Aerosondes to high

resolution observations of sea surface temperature over
Barrow Canyon,” Geo. Res. Let., vol 31, L14312,
doi:10.1029, July 2004.
 UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions - Barrow
 June 2004 deployment focused on melt
pond mapping and characterization
over Beaufort and Chukchi Seas
 Several hundred pictures taken of sea
ice during various stages of melt
 GPS data associated with photographs
used to co-locate on MODIS footprint
 Flight pattern: 10 x 10 km box
 Digital photographs overlapped along
and across track
 Designed to cover ~400 pixels of
MODIS footprint at 500m resolution
 Mosaics of photos
 June 13, 2004 flew 2 boxes
 UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions - Barrow

Region of Aerosonde flights

Barrow
Clouds

MODIS band 1, 250m resolution

UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions - Barrow

Mosaic of aerial photos

 UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions

• Aerosonde Flight into Hurricane Noel, 2007

• First UAS flight into a hurricane
• Low level flight in boundary layer
– 200 to 1000ft in altitude
• Penetration of eye wall
• Over 7hr of data
• Determined data more valuable than aircraft
– Aircraft was intentionally ditched in the ocean
UAS and Science Applications:
Past Missions
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions
• NASA Global Hawk first mission
GloPAC
• First demonstration of the Global
Hawk UAS for NASA and NOAA
Earth science research and
applications
• Pacific Ocean and Arctic flights
• Aura validation
• Exploration of trace gases,
aerosols, and dynamics of remote
UT/LS regions
• Sample polar vortex fragments and
atmospheric rivers
• Risk reduction for future mission
(e.g., hurricanes reconnaissance)
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions
Stratospheric tracers
H2O Herman, JPL
O3 Gao, NOAA ESRL
Long-lived gases
1) N2O, SF6; 2) CO, H2, CH4 Elkins, NOAA ESRL
or CFC-11, CFC-12, Halon-1211
UV-Vis spectrometer (column NO2) Janz, NASA GSFC
Aerosols
CNC (0.008 - 2 µm) Wilson, Denver U
FCAS (0.09 - 1 µm) Wilson, Denver U
UHSAS (0.05 - 200 nm) Kok, Baumgardner, DMT
Cloud properties (lidar) McGill, NASA GSFC
Microwave Temp Profiler (MTP) Mahoney, JPL
Meteorological parameters Bui, NASA Ames
MVIS (camera) Myers, NASA Ames
AMS (multispectral scanner) Myers, NASA Ames
Dropsondes (under development) Fahey, NOAA & NCAR
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions
• CASSIE
– SIERRA UAS flights
out of Svalbard,
Norway (going on
now!)
– Arctic sea ice
characterization
– Instrumentation:
• MicroASAR
• Laser altimeter
• Meteorological
sensors (PTU)
• Microspectrometer
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions

NASA SIERRA

22
 UAS and Science Applications:
Current and Future Missions
Challenges for Using
Unmanned Aircraft
For Science
 The Challenges:
Technical Challenges
• Technology is maturing, but still not
extremely reliable
– Platform experience and reliability
– Sensor development
• Sensor technology
– Miniaturization and automation of sensors
• Data storage and data relay
– Require either on-board storage or ability to
relay data to ground real time
• Airframe icing in the Arctic
– Same issues as manned aircraft
 The Challenges: Regulatory
US Airspace Structure Overview
 US Airspace Structure:
Oceanic Airspace
• Oceanic regions regulated by ICAO
• Begins 12nm off US coastline
• Different Flight Information Regions (FIRs)
– FAA provides services in FIRs
– ICAO delegated authority to FAA to apply rules and
regulations
• Bulk of Oceanic is Class A (5,500ft up to FL600)
– Below 5,500ft is Class G
 US Regulations:
Public vs Civil Aircraft
• All aircraft must comply with FAA Code
of Federal Regulations (CFRs)
• Civil aircraft (airlines, general aviation):
– Required to obtain airworthiness certification
from FAA
• Compliance with FAA standards for manufacture,
maintenance, etc
• Public Aircraft (government owned)
– By law are not required to comply with FAA
airworthiness standards
– Must have airworthiness certificate to fly in
NAS
• In-house airworthiness process
 US Regulations:
14 CFR 91
• Title 14, “Aeronautics and Space”, Part
91 “General Operating and Flight Rules”
– General, visual, and instrument flight rules
(VFR, IFR)
– Equipage, instrument, and certificate
requirements
– Required maintenance
• Created with manned aircraft in mind

UAS do not or cannot comply to a

significant portion of 14 CFR 91 at
this time
 Current Methods of Access
• Certificate of Authorization (COA)
– Method available to Public Aircraft only
• Federal and State government including universities
• Provide their own airworthiness statement
– Approval given case by case
– Provides access to specific areas with limitations and
requirements
– Expires one year after approval date unless otherwise
noted
– Can take up to 6mo to receive approval

• Experimental Certificates for UAS

– Available to commercial companies for testing aircraft
– Rigorous airworthiness review by FAA
– Certificate grants access to specific areas with tight
restrictions for operations
 The Challenges

• Lack of standards and regulations

– Grounded civil or commercial UAS activities
– Experimental Certificate process
• Takes about 1 year to complete
• Very restrictive
– Small UAS Rulemaking activity ongoing
• Addresses UAS up to 55lb (~25kg)
• Process will take about 3 years
• Limited to visual line of site and daytime
operations
– Public aircraft not as affected because self
certify airworthiness
 The Challenges

• See and Avoid

– 14 CFR 91.113: “When weather conditions
permit, regardless of whether an operation is
conducted under instrument flight rules or visual
flight rules, vigilance shall be maintained by
each person operating an aircraft so as to see
and avoid other aircraft.”
– Biggest issue for public aircraft
– Cannot rely on manned aircraft to watch out for
UAS and move out of the way
– No technical solution currently available
 See and Avoid:
Example Problems
• UAS flying at 25,000ft; Generator fails
during flight, battery life only 45minutes
– Need to land a soon as possible, therefore
must leave Class A airspace and enter Class
E airspace
• ATC no longer providing services, including
separation

Question: How does UAS ensure risk of

collision with another aircraft is
mitigated?
• Big Sky Theory not applicable
– Lots of general aviation in Class D, E, and G
 See and Avoid:
Example Problems
• Manned aircraft declare an emergency, ATC
creates “hole” in sky
– Cooperative versus uncooperative aircraft
– Emergency dictated by threat to souls on board
aircraft
– Pilot on board can “steer” around potential obstacles
and avoid populated areas on the ground

Questions: What constitutes an emergency on

an unmanned aircraft? How do UAS steer
clear of obstacles and populated areas on
the ground?

.
 Summary

• Significant potential for using UAS for earth

science to fill data gaps

• Past and current UAS missions

demonstrate capability and potential

• Challenges to flying UAS for science are

significant and require additional work
 Questions?
Any questions, please contact me:

brenda.l.mulac@nasa.gov

Thank you!