A marine Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS) facility: Building capacity for high-resolution remote sensing and analysis of marine and coastal ecosystems

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The use of Unoccupied Aircraft Systems (UAS), also known as drones, in marine science is growing, filling a gap between shoreline or boat-based surveys and aerial imagery collected by occupied airplanes and satellites. Drones enable on-demand, high resolution data collection across ocean environments, while reducing costs and human risk. The potential applications for promoting the progress of marine science are vast, including studies of changing coastlines, measuring ocean water quality, counting animals such as seabirds and sea turtles, assessing the health and behavior of animals, and even sampling the breath of individual whales. Despite their demonstrated utility for marine science and conservation missions, there is little support for researchers to integrate drones into their scientific studies. Similarly, there are few programs designed to train students to use drones in marine science and conservation programs. This project addresses these gaps by establishing a research and training facility that will enhance the capacity of NSF-funded researchers, and other portions of the scientific community on the US East Coast, to use drones for the study and conservation of coastal and marine systems.
 This project will i) repurpose and renovate an existing building to create engineering, computational, and visualization/training/outreach laboratories for UAS research, ii) diversify a fleet of UAS to increase capabilities available to the scientific community in the region, iii) develop a data analysis, visualization, and storage framework for products generated by the facility. Numerous challenges associated with operating UAS will benefit from this centralized regional marine facility, including FAA licensing and permitting, development and deployment of marine-specific sampling methods, maintenance of the social license to operate, centralized data archiving, and by establishing a locus for sensor, computational, and visualization tool development in response to the scientific needs of coastal and marine researchers. The UAS facility will enable studies of the ecosystem consequences of human activities in marine habitats, including dynamics and processes. This new sampling capability provides aerial imagery from visible to infrared and hyperspectral wavelengths, as well as other geo-referenced sensor data, including light detection and ranging (LIDAR) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR). UAS are also now used to sample atmospheric phenomena (wind, aerosols) and can even be used to sample breath from individual whales. The potential coastal applications range from studies of changing coastal geomorphology to population dynamics and behavior of marine vertebrates such as seals and turtles. Archived, geospatially referenced data will be invaluable for long-term studies of change related to storm events and sea-level rise in coastal areas. The facility will enable hands-on sensor and computational development experience for students in engineering and biology programs at Duke, and will support a summer training course in research methods open to professionals as well as undergraduate and graduate students. The facility will also support marine science interaction in the local community and established STEM outreach initiatives including local public school aviation clubs and summer programs at local the Boys and Girls Clubs.