Applications of Aerosondes in the Arctic

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he U.S. Arctic remains one of the most difficult places on Earth for year-round scientific observations and research. Logistical support is very expensive, and scientists frequently face dangerous, cold sea–ice dynamics, aircraft icing—even polar bears. While satellites can obtain data in remote regions, their application to many arctic environmental problems is hampered by persistent cloudiness and the complexity of the underlying snow/ice surface. One of the major recommendations of the 1997 report, “Logistics Recommendations for an Improved U.S. Arctic Research Capability” (www.arcus.org/logistics/index.html), was to increase use of robotic aircraft to meet the growing need for environmental observing in the region. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) excel in “dull, dirty, dangerous” missions. Such UAVs, made by Aerosonde (www.aerosonde. com), were first flown in the Arctic (from a base in Barrow, Alaska) in April 1999 to obtain meteorological observations in support of the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program (ARM). However, after only 16 h of flying for this mission, the project lost two aircraft due to airframe icing and one aircraft due to carburetor icing. This mission clearly demonstrated the difficulties of flying the Aerosonde in the extreme arctic environment. The National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs soon followed these tests by funding a project to establish a facility in Barrow, Alaska, adapt the Aerosonde to extreme arctic conditions, adapt and integrate miniature instrumentation, and assimilate Aerosonde data into predictive models. Meanwhile, the Office of Naval Research began supporting the development and integration of a variety of miniature research instruments for remote sensing of the sea ice surface, measurements of radiative fluxes, and in situ measurements of cloud and precipitation characteristics. Since the first Arctic flights, the Aerosonde has undergone a number of engineering modifications (see Table 1 for Aerosonde specifications). As a result, the Aerosonde project is overcoming the engineering and logistical challenges of operating in the polar environment.