Highlights from Eight Years of Advancing Knowledge of Surface and Boundary Layer Processes Using Small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems at the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory

Since 2015, the NOAA Air Resources Laboratory’s (ARL) Atmospheric Turbulence and Diffusion Division (ATDD) has been using small uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS) to advance scientific understanding of the physical processes within Earth’s atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and to investigate land-atmosphere feedbacks. In this work, we will highlight key scientific results that have emerged from the UAS program at ARL. Much of the presentation will highlight key scientific advances that ARL has obtained using UAS during a selection of field campaigns over the past eight years, including:

1. The Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment in the Southeast U.S. (VORTEX-SE) in Alabama in spring 2016 and 2017
2. The Land Atmosphere Feedback Experiment (LAFE) in northern Oklahoma in August 2017
3. A study of the North American eclipse in eastern Tennessee on 21 August 2017
4. The Chequamegon Heterogeneous Ecosystem Energy-balance Study Enabled by a High-density Extensive Array of Detectors (CHEESEHEAD) in northern Wisconsin from July through September 2019
5. A study on the evolution of the early-morning transition period of the ABL near Oak Ridge, Tennessee in 2020 that was used to support dispersion forecasts using ARL’s HYSPLIT model.

We will conclude by summarizing paths forward for using UAS observations to complement future observation campaigns on ABL processes and feedbacks.