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Katrin Lehmann
Scripps Institution of Oceanography

May 26, 2009
Foothills Laboratory 2, Room 1022 (Large Auditorium)
Lecture 10:00am

Towards Measuring the Turbulent Moisture Flux from Lightweight UASs

Airborne in-situ measurements are an important component of atmospheric research.
Unmanned Aerial Systems (UASs) offer the facility to augment traditional manned-aircraft measurements when missions require coordinated, dangerous, or monotonous airborne measurements that may create a risk or challenge to participating personnel or equipment. In addition, UASs present a potential for less expensive routine operations especially as platform costs and capabilities improve.
The Ramanathan group at Scripps Institution of Oceanography has created miniaturized instruments and deployed them on small, unmanned aircraft. Successful campaigns in the past include the Maldives AUAV Campaign (MAC) in 2006, the California AUAV Air Pollution Profiling Study (CAPPS) in 2008, and the Cheju ABC Plume-Asian Monsoon Experiment (CAPMEX) in 2008. Currently, the capacity to measure the turbulent surface moisture flux is being developed.
In the talk, past campaigns, miniaturized instruments, and results are summarized. The technology used to measure the turbulent moisture flux is discussed, and first results are shown.