Applications of the Aerosonde to Long-Term Observations in the Arctic

The Aerosonde is a small robotic aircraft (14 kg) designed for highly flexible and inexpensive operations. Missions are conducted in a completely robotic mode, with the aircraft under the command of a ground controller who monitors the mission. The Aerosonde can carry an instrument payload of up to 4 kg. For smaller instrument payloads, the Mark 3 Aerosonde (operational in early 2001) can conduct missions that exceed 40 h in duration and 4000 km in range, up to an altitude of 6 km. This exceptional duration and range are made possible by the development of the world's smallest fuel-injected engine that provides over 1 kW of power and fuel economy in excess of 2,500 mpg. The Aerosonde has flown over 1000 hours since 1998 in support of a range of missions in a wide variety of environments, primarily in obtaining meteorological measurements.

The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs has recently funded the establishment of an observing system using the Aerosonde at Barrow under its Arctic Long-Term Observations program (starting spring 2000, for a period of 5 years). The operational goals of this NSF project are to:

• establish a facility for Aerosonde deployment and reconnaissance at Barrow

• adapt the Aerosonde design to be more robust and efficient for arctic applications

• integrate additional miniature instruments into the Aerosonde system (e.g. radiometers, laser altimeter, video camera, and chemistry measurements)

• regularly deploy the Aerosondes to measure atmospheric state and surface characteristics

• set up a data dissemination, distribution, and archiving system for the Aerosonde data

• •work with operational modelling and remote sensing centers to assimilate these data into their analyses

• collaborate/cooperate with any field projects in the region and provide support to any local scientific issues put forward by the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium.

An overview will be given of the project, including recent engineering developments. Results from operations in Barrow during August 2000 and April 2001 will be presented