Meteorological Aerial Realtime Sonde

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Meteorological Aerial Real-time Sonde
MARS

• Project Definition Presentation

Group Members

• Neil Antonson
• Michael Arnold
• Matthew Calvin
• Dax Minary

• Sonja Nedrud
• Jonathan Nikkel
• Erin Reed
• Andrew Shulman

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Overview

• Background and Context
• Objectives
• Anticipated Engineering Expertise
• Resources
• Questions

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Background and Context

• Interest in sondes for meteorology
• Particular interest in extreme conditions
• Wildfire, polar, and storm, etc.

Pictures taken from NOAA picture gallery
www.photolib.noaa.gov
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Background and Context (cont.)

• RECUV is investigating use of UAVs for data
  collection and transmission
• Current sonde technology is limited
• High cost
• Prohibitive for low budget projects
• Limited functionality
• Balloon borne sondes limited area
• Drop (freefall) sondes limited data time

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Overall Objective
The objective of this project is to conceive,
design, fabricate, integrate, and test a sonde
swarm composed of at least 4 identical vehicles
that deploy from a mothership, remain aloft for a
specific amount of time, and telemeter
atmospheric and aircraft data in two distinct
phases.
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Flight Measurement Objectives

• Atmospheric Temperature, Pressure and Relative
  Humidity
• Minimum sampling rate of 4 Hz
• Accuracy, drift rate and latency TBD
• Position and Velocity
• Minimum sampling rate of 4 Hz
• Accuracy, drift rate and latency TBD

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Ground Measurement Objectives

• Atmospheric Temperature, Pressure and Relative
  Humidity
• Minimum sampling rate of 1/600 Hz
• Accuracy, drift rate and latency TBD
• Position
• Minimum sampling rate of 1/600 Hz
• Accuracy, drift rate and latency TBD
• Data Storage
• Required amount of data storage TBD

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Flight Objectives

• Deploy four identical sonde vehicles
• Mothership is TBD
• No intelligent interface from sonde to Mothership
• Vehicle shall sustain controlled flight (non-free
  fall)
• Minimum 10 minute flight time
• Deployed at 500 ft relative altitude
• Sonde avionics shall remain operable after
  landing
• Stretch Goal Vehicles shall be capable of
  controllable autonomous flight

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Flight Communications Objectives

• Data shall be telemetered in near real-time
• Maximum lag time is TBD
• Communication requirements
• Minimum 80 throughput
• Minimum range of 2 km
• Stretch Goal Avionics shall provide ad- hoc
  networking capability

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Ground Communications Objectives

• Data shall be telemetered upon query from
  overflying vehicle
• Overflying vehicle requirements
• Stand-alone data-logging package
• Data shall be retrieved upon return

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Ground Station Objectives

• Ground station shall receive sonde telemetry data
• Near real-time data processing and display
• Allows for in flight data analysis
• Data shall be stored for post processing

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Anticipated Engineering Expertise
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Facilities Resources

• RECUV Systems Integration Lab
• Aerospace and ITLL machine shops
• Table Mountain radio quiet zone
• Upon approval of site director
• StorageTek Advanced Product Testing (APT)
  facility
• Composite manufacturing facility
• Electronics manufacturing facility

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Funding Resources

• Aerospace Engineering Department to provide
  4,000
• Additional grant proposals
• Undergraduate Research Opportunities Fund (UROP)
• Engineering Excellence Fund (EEF)

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Questions?