A New Approach to Remote Sensing in the Arctic Using Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles UAVs to Sense the Arctic Beyond the Capabilities of Man A summary of the presentation given to the Remote Sensing Seminar class ASEN 6210 on February 11 2004 by Jim Maslanik By Jasper Hammond On February 11 Jim Maslanik gave us a presentation on his use of Unpiloted Aerial Vehicles UAV for remote sensing of the Arctic With operations based out of Barrow Alaska Mr Maslanik has been using UAVs for several years in his research The UAVs utilized in his research are commercially built by an Australian company called Aerosonde The planes are designed to be autonomous robot vehicles that respond to the environment and make in flight corrections on their own to keep them airborne Mr Maslanik proceeded to tell us of the capabilities of these UAVs their potential for research and of the limitations inherent in their design and the environment in which they are being used First off Mr Maslanik gave us a run down of some of the many possible uses of UAVs In remote sensing there are many possibilities UAVs can be used to characterize the surface of the sea and land ice pack and qualify quantify the variation of the icepack over extended periods of time They can be used to explore ice atmosphere interactions ocean temperatures radiant temperatures to examine polar clouds and the radiant processes occurring within them The UAVs can also help to check and validate related satellite image products as well And truly as one expands the range of fields being considered the potential applications of the UAV in research expand with it UAVs could be used to monitor coastal processes wildlife populations and movement and could even be used to help in search and rescue operations The uses of the UAV really depend on the instruments and payloads that are deployed within it Mr Maslanik went on to explain the optimal requirements that his research demands on any aircraft that might be utilized in the Arctic and which the AVs attempt to provide First of all is the need for an aircraft that meets the necessary requirements to be able to provide high quality reliable and accurate data For aircraft this includes the use of an on board GPS system for accurate geolocation of the aircraft along with a realtime measure of the aircraft s physical conditions including air speed pitch tilt and yaw enabling accurate correction of remote sensing data It is also a great advantage for an aircraft to be used in the Arctic to be easily deployable as space for take off can be difficult to find Other characteristics that can be very beneficial include low cost easy operation ability to handle extreme conditions and extended flight durations The next portion of Mr Maslanik s presentation detailed the ways in which UAVs can fulfill many of the aforementioned requirements for airborne data collection He began this discussion with five general considerations which make UAVs very useful These include safety access operating conditions logistics and cost Access and Safety Simply put the UAV can go where manned planes and vehicles cannot so easily go The mere fact that UAVs fly autonomously and contain no living cargo makes them an obvious choice when the danger of accidents is great as any loss would be purely material The dangerous situations might include stormy skies and night flights where human fatigue and limiting eyesight may be a danger Using UAVs can also pose much less of a local impact than some other research methods like the Icebreaker pictured above or a larger noisier plane which might be disturbing to local people and wildlife Logistics and Cost The Aerosonde Unpiloted Aerial Vehicle is fully robotic and responds to environmental conditions around it to keep it in the air The approximate cost per plane is only 50 000 pretty low considering the cost of a manned research plane and its crew The Aerosonde being fully robotic requires a minimal crew to operate basically one person at a time and can run by itself for the most part It can be launched from any vehicle that can bear the weight of the Aerosonde and reach a speed of 40 mph see picture Its small payload capacity 2 4 kg can be a limiting factor but is effective to be able to house a variety of useful instruments The Aerosonde has a very long range and flight duration being able to fly for up to 30 hours or 3000 km before needing to be recovered and refueled This plane also has an effective altitude range of 100m 6000m Another distinct advantage of the Aerosonde UAV is the fact that it can be controlled by a global satcomm link which enables control of the planes from almost anywhere my assumption Additionally the fine computer controller aspect of the Aerosonde enables the researchers to even fly multiple plane missions such as having two planes flying in tandem to effect specific research uses like interferometry Operating Conditions These were mentioned briefly under safety and access and under logistics and will be discussed in some further detail under the limitations section Instrument Payload Mr Maslanik gave us a brief description of the instruments that he frequently utilizes or plans to utilize aboard the Aerosonde UAV Digital Camera 800 image capacity keeps continuous contact with satellites Weather air temperature RH wind speed and direction Infrared Pyrometer skin temperatures cloud top temperatures Video visual and thermal long range transmission Icing Sensor Imaging Radar Profiling Laser Pyranometer Cloud Particle Sampler Ozone Sampler Profiling Spectrometer Turbulent Flux Measurements Limitations The next discussion focused on the limitations of the UAV due to design logistics and operating environment The first limitation he mentioned which is of a dominant concern in the arctic this is airframe icing Extensive collection of ice crystals on the body of the plane can cause it to lose stability gain extra weight and possibly crash due to the ice s effects Engineers at Aerosonde have been working at developing better icing sensors and the possibility of various de icing mechanisms such as oil heating the frame insulating the internal electronics replacing the carburetor with a fuel injection system and a strengthened airframe to withstand icing Another possible realm of limitations for the UAV is pending FAA restrictions As of right now the FAA is in the process of developing laws and restrictions regarding the use and operation of UAVs One of their principle concerns