Abstract
This paper describes the components and usage of an unmanned aerial vehicle developed for measuring turbulence in the atmospheric boundary layer. A method of computing the time-dependent wind speed from a moving velocity sensor data is provided. The physical system built to implement this method using a five-hole probe velocity sensor is described along with the approach used to combine data from the different on-board sensors to allow for extraction of the wind speed as a function of time and position. The approach is demonstrated using data from three flights of two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) measuring the lower atmospheric boundary layer during transition from a stable to convective state. Several quantities are presented and show the potential for extracting a range of atmospheric boundary layer statistics.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-4-2017
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos8100195
Funding Information
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation through grant #CBET-1351411 and by the National Science Foundation Award No.1539070, Collaboration Leading Operational UAS Development for Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics (CLOUDMAP).
Repository Citation
Witte, Brandon M.; Singler, Robert F.; and Bailey, Sean C. C., "Development of an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle for the Measurement of Turbulence in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer" (2017). Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications. 27.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/me_facpub/27
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Atmosphere, v. 8, issue 10, 195, p. 1-25.
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).