The Use of WxUAS for filling in the PBL Observational Gap: An Overview of 2024 WeatherHive Deployments at Mesonets

WeatherHive (WxHive) is an all-in-one UAS platform developed by GreenSight (GS) that uses Weather Intelligence Sensing Platforms (WIPSs) or nano drones in diverse swarm formations to provide on-demand targeted meteorological monitoring at a high spatial, temporal, and vertical sampling rate throughout the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL). Each WISP is equipped with a suite of dual weather sensors measuring barometric pressure, ambient air temperature and relative humidity, while the flight controller measures wind speed and direction through a highly calibrated Kalman filter. These palm-sized uncrewed aircraft are automatically launched from their ‘Hive’, each capable of flying up to 5 km in altitude, fanning out over a 300 square kilometer area from their deployment location, and providing ~50 minutes of near-real time environmental monitoring.

WxHive has been or will be deployed on three field campaigns collocated to the 1. The New York State Mesonet, 2. The Nebraska State Mesonet and 3. The Oklahoma State Mesonet. The goal of these deployments was to assess the applicability of WxHive to: 1. answer integrated Earth science research questions 2. provide decision making support for agricultural practices and 3. provide routine weather observations to increase the situational awareness of operational forecasters. In tandem, each campaign included a cal-val component aimed at evaluating sensor placement and calibration techniques for future long-term deployments. We will present an overview of each field campaign, a summary of the cal-val results, and a discussion on the practical utility of WxHive. Results will be presented that assess the ability of WxUAS to fill in the PBL observational data gap and the application of the data for near real time weather monitoring, forecasting, agricultural practices, and more. In addition, the potential implications of an operational WxUAS mesoscale observing system network will be discussed.