Unmanned Aerial Vehicles for Urban Meteorology

More than half of the world’s population lives in urban areas, and hence, issues related to urbanization, such as air quality and urban heat islands, have become more critical. While our general understanding of heat and pollution in cities has significantly improved, there are still significant knowledge gaps related to the transport of heat and pollutants in dense urban spaces. In particular, vertical measurements of temperature and pollutants, which are key to near-surface conditions, are mostly unavailable. Traditional measurement techniques using standard meteorological towers are costly and logistically hard to maintain in dense urban spaces. Herein, we have developed an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) based sensor to quantify temperature, humidity, ozone, and particulate matter. In our research project, we will use the UAV-based sensor to understand the horizontal and vertical variability in key meteorological and air quality variables in select neighborhoods in New York City.