Analysis software for the Aerosonde robotic aircraft

The development of effective, documented and re-usable software continues to be a major endeavour of researchers. This is particularly true of situations where novel measurement platforms are involved. The Aerosonde is one such platform, being a small robotic aircraft capable of sustained flight (24-36 hours) in regions of meteorological interest (www.aerosonde.com). The aircraft uses standard meteorological instrumentation to return measurements of P, T, U and wind at specified intervals. The flight duration and the ability to make resample one or many columns at frequent intervals calls for novel techniques and new software tools. The paper presents some of the software tools which have been developed to plan and monitor missions and to review and analyse the datasets returned by the Aerosonde. Some of the material developed in support of the Aerosonde is presented as a reusable 'open-source' Matlab toolbox with applications to many meteorological situations.