NSF PR 01-41 - May 17, 2001
Media contact:
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Peter West, NSF
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(703) 292-8070
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pwest@nsf.gov
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Program contacts:
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Simon Stephenson, NSF
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(703) 292-8030
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stephens@nsf.gov
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Judith Curry
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(303) 492-5733
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Curryja@cloud.colorado.edu
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Robotic Aircraft Provide a New Tool to Conduct
Arctic Climate Studies
Enlisting a new technological tool to understand the
complex interactions of Arctic ice and global climate,
researchers supported by the National Science Foundation
(NSF) are conducting flight tests and gathering scientific
data with small, pilot-less planes that can fly under
conditions poorly suited for manned aircraft and that
have incredible range, due to their fuel efficiency.
A research team from the University of Colorado at
Boulder in April completed flight testing of the pilot-less
aircraft, called Aerosondes, in Barrow, Alaska. The
team will return to Barrow in August to conduct more
flight tests and to expand the scientific sampling
of variables used to monitor sea ice and atmospheric
conditions and to develop and refine climate models.
The Alaska flights were made in conjunction with Aerosonde
Ltd. and Aerosonde North America, which manufacture
the aircraft.
In April, the team observed flights to test an instrument
that measures surface temperatures of sea ice and
the temperature variation between newly formed ice
and heat coming from open water "leads." The measurements
will help determine how the new ice forms and how
much heat and moisture are radiating from the leads.
Judith Curry, the project's principal investigator,
said that although some engineering refinements still
are needed to help the aircraft cope with the extreme
low temperatures in the skies over the Arctic, the
Aerosondes provide several important advantages that
make them a practical alternative to existing planes
for conducting Arctic science.
Curry was a principal investigator on the NSF-supported
Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean (SHEBA) project
in the late 1990s. She said that it would have been
scientifically useful to have much of the information
from April's unmanned flights during SHEBA. But she
noted that it simply would not have been safe for
the much larger aircraft used as part of SHEBA to
fly for long distances at the heights the Aerosondes
reach.
"During SHEBA we didn't get any measurements over the
new ice, it was just too dangerous," she said. The
Aerosonde, she added, "has the potential to be a much
cheaper and safer alternative to conduct some very
important field work in the Arctic."
James Maslanik, also at the University of Colorado
and co-principal investigator on the Aerosonde project,
noted that even when compared with small civilian
aircraft used for science in the Arctic, the Aersonde
has the advantages of light weight (about 13.5 kilograms,
or 29 pounds), ability to fly more than 1,500 miles
on a gallon of fuel, and can remain airborne for 24
hours.
And the Aerosonde, in many cases, is more easily customized
to carry scientific instruments. "It takes a lot of
work to get a good, research quality dataset with
conventional commercial aircraft," Maslanik said.
The Aerosonde also enhances and verifies other measurements
such as those taken by satellites because the plane
"can fly low under the cloud cover that typically
is present in the Arctic," Maslanik noted.
The relatively inexpensive planes, with their long-range
and ability to hug the ground, could also be used
in environmental monitoring, mapping wildlife migration
routes and assisting search-and-rescue operations
without risking human crews.
Native people in Alaska's North Slope region were quick
to seize on the potential of the planes, Maslanik
added.
"One aspect of the project that surprised us was the
level of local interest by the Inupiat Elders and
others in Barrow," he said. "They're coming up with
a lot of ideas that we wouldn't necessarily think
of in using these machines. I think they're viewing
this as a project that has a payoff for the North
Slope communities."
For more information about the Aerosonde in Barrow,
see http://www.aerosonde.com/barrow_2001.htm
To read a paper by the Aerosonde research team, see
http://www.aerosonde.com/BAMS/BAMS-text.html
For more information on NSF-supported Arctic science,
see the Office of Polar Programs' Web site: http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/arctic/start.htm
For more information about NSF's SHEBA project, see
the University of Washington's Web site http://sheba.apl.washington.edu/
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