Small Autonomous Aircraft for Economical Oceanographic Observations on a Wide Scale
Small Autonomous Aircraft for Economical Oceanographic Observations on a Wide Scale
复制标题
用于大范围经济海洋观测的小型自主飞机
DOI：
10.5670/oceanog.1993.08
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发表时间：
1993
期刊：
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
G. Holland
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. McGeer;G. Holland
A PROTOTYPE AEROSONDE, which will fit comfortably on a desktop, and can be packed in two boxes sufficiently small to be taken as airline luggage, is shown in Figure 1. It will have a range of over 7,000 kin, endurance up to 4 days, capacity for precision navigation anywhere on the globe and for timely communication back to your desktop PC, and full autonomy, so that it will not require continuous monitoring during flight. Its payload will be sufficient for a variety of lightweight oceanographic and atmospheric sensors, including radiosonde-type meteorological instruments, a short-range radar altimeter, solar/infrared (IR) and broad-band radiometers combined with a precise attitude reference, an optical rain gauge, or a video camera with a short-range downlink. Aerosondes may be operated on long autonomous missions or over short distances from a controlling ship or coastal station, in quantity for operational reconnaissance and major field programs, or individually, perhaps even by the solo researcher with little more than a laptop, a modem, and a small field for launch and recovery. If used in large numbers their unit cost should be on the order of $10,000. The initial stimulus for developing aerosondes has come from meteorology. Lack of comprehensive atmospheric soundings in remote areas has been a chronic problem for decades, and the consequences have become increasingly apparent as numerical models have improved. Sparsity of observational data, rather than model fidelity, is now more commonly the limiting factor in forecast accuracy (ICSU, 1992). Consequently there is a pressing need for new reconnaissance techniques, which must be sufficiently flexible to fill very large data voids in oceanic and remote areas, and also sufficiently economical for routine deployment on a wide scale. It is testimony to the aerosonde 's ability to satisfy these requirements that the World
