Damage Assessment Response Team: External Uncrewed Systems Imagery for National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Storm Damage Assessments

The use of aerial imagery for research into severe weather has a long history, and the National Weather Service (NWS) has had funding to use Civil Air Patrol flights to assist with post-storm damage assessments for at least the past decade. NOAA’s National Severe Storm Laboratory (NSSL) has used Uncrewed Systems (UxS) imagery for research and, more recently, a few NWS offices have acquired the necessary skills and equipment needed to use small UxS for damage assessments. Unfortunately, those resources are limited and most NWS offices do not have access to this capability. The rapid expansion of UxS capabilities in academia and the private sector has created opportunities for the NWS to evaluate their ability to provide imagery to supplement ground based and NOAA UxS resources during significant weather and water events.

Post-storm damage assessments require the rapid deployment of trained teams to gather evidence for storm ratings and research. Satellite imagery can be valuable for larger events, but can also be of limited utility due to weather conditions, delays dependent on orbital timing, and spatial resolution. UxS can overcome many of these limitations. By partnering with organizations local to the office who can produce appropriate products, we have the potential to provide each NWS office with timely, sustainable access to UxS imagery.

In order to further explore this capability, the NWS Southern Region and the National Severe Storms Laboratory are collaborating with Verizon, Florida State University, and the University of Alabama-Huntsville through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADA) for these partners to voluntarily provide UxS imagery following impacts from severe weather. This project has been informally named the “Damage Assessment Response Team (DART).” Although a vision of a large network of partners exists, the CRADAs are focused on these three partners for events in the Southeast United States to test and refine concepts. The development of draft requirements to enable the purchase of commercial UxS imagery as a product, or contracting with external UxS operators as a service, is the ultimate goal of this effort. A summary of the first year's progress including examples from recent weather events will be provided.