The Helicopter Observation Platform (HOP): Demonstration and Calibration Phase

杜克大学已经购买了一架贝尔206B-3喷气式游侠直升机，该直升机正在装备各种传感器和仪器，以建立一个直升机观察平台（HOP）。该平台能够在空气速度低至10-20米/秒，高至约60米/秒的情况下对未受干扰的空气进行采样，采样高度从离地面几英尺到远高于大气边界层顶部不等。因此，它提供了一种非常独特的空气传播能力，除其他外，可以量化影响空气质量并进而影响人类健康的气溶胶特性和热、水和微量气体的通量。这些过程也是天气和气候系统的重要组成部分。HOP还可以方便、高效地利用激光雷达、雷达等仪器进行任意高分辨率的大气和地表特征遥感观测。这个为期两年的项目的目标是：(1)校准目前安装在HOP上的传感器（包括振动滤波），以及(2)使用计算流体动力学软件和校准传感器的组合详细研究HOP的空气动力学包络。后者的目的是评估研究任务的最佳飞行空速范围。该项目的总体目标是继续HOP的开发阶段，并朝着为科学界提供一个独特的大气和环境研究平台的目标迈进。这个项目的智力价值在于，它解决了测量微量气体通量和气溶胶特性的非常基本的问题，从一个独特的飞机平台，具有复杂的空气动力学外壳，提供独特的观测能力。更广泛的影响来自于使HOP达到准备参加各种实地实验的状态，以阐明与气象、气候和健康研究有关的进程方面取得的进展。虽然由杜克大学签约的一家商业公司运营，但HOP将为广泛的科学界的所有研究人员提供需要其能力的研究项目。

Duke University has purchased a Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger helicopter that is being equipped with various sensors and instruments to establish a helicopter observation platform (HOP). This platform is capable of sampling undisturbed air at airspeeds as low as 10-20 m/s and up to approximately 60 m/s, at various altitudes from a few feet above the ground surface to well above the top of the atmospheric boundary layer. Thus, it offers a very unique airborne capability for quantifying, among others, aerosol properties and fluxes of heat, water and trace gases that affect air quality, and, as a result, human health. These same processes are important components of the weather and climate system. The HOP can also be used conveniently and efficiently for carrying out remotely-sensed observations of atmospheric and land-surface characteristics with arbitrarily high resolution using lidars, radars and other instruments.The goals of the two-year project are to (1) calibrate the sensors currently mounted on the HOP (including the filtering of vibrations), and (2) study in detail the aerodynamic envelope of the HOP using a combination of a computational fluid dynamic software and the calibrated sensors. The purpose of the latter is to assess the optimal flight airspeed range for research missions. The overall objective of this project is to continue the development phase of the HOP, and progress toward the goal of making available to the scientific community a unique platform for atmospheric and environmental research. The intellectual merit of this project is that it tackles the very fundamental problem of measuring trace gas fluxes and aerosols characteristics from a unique aircraft platform with a complex aerodynamic envelope, providing unique observational capabilities.The broader impact comes from progress made towards bringing the HOP to a state of readiness to participate in various field experiments to elucidate processes relevant to meteorological, climate and health research. While operated by a commercial company contracted by Duke University, the HOP will be available to all investigators within the broad scientific community for research projects needing its capabilities.