NOAA UAS to conduct missions in the Arctic


Research: UAS Mission

ASCI 530 - Unmanned Aerospace Systems

John Van Geem


To pursue responsible Arctic region stewardship and strengthen international cooperation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is looking at a number of UAS for atmospheric observations. To accomplish this mission, the NOAA is looking at specifications for the IAI HERON, AEOVEL FlexRotor, and AAI Aerosonde UAS, (Coffey, 2014).
It is NOAA’s vision that UAS will bring a comparable impact to observing strategies, as satellites have done in the past. Some of the mission profits that these UAS can contribute to is ice ridge monitoring, marine mammal monitoring, search and recovery scenarios, oil spill monitoring, and tracking marine debris from ships, (Coffey, 2014).
The IAI Heron is capable of SATCOM communications for extended ranges, helping out for mission over deep ice where no previous transportation is possible. Proved to be operable in extreme cold, snow, and icy situations, the IAI Heron has a multi sensor capability and automatic take off and landing system for it’s 2-45hr flights (Coffey, 2014)
The AAI Aerosonde has already been successfully integrated to an arctic ship ready launch and recovery system, (Coffey, 2014). With it’s precision GPS, Aerosounde is capable of mission sets up to 38hrs, can carries an EO/IR sensory for sensitive environmental collections.
Lastly, the AEOVEL FlexRotor is capable of a 2,000NM range, and has a flight ceiling of 24,600ft (Coffey, 2014). This VTOL to Fixed wing UAV can carry smaller payloads, but is excellent for the extreme temperatures of the arctic climate, and can be fielded from small boats and ships.


Reference


Coffey, J. (September, 2014). NOAA Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) Program Activities. Published by NOAA UAS Program Office. Retrieved from http://www.ngi.msstate.edu/noaa_uas_workshop_2014/presentations/Coffey.pdf

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