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Observing Entrainment Processes Using a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: A Feasibility Study

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Abstract

Measurement flights with the meteorological mini aerial vehicle (M\(^2\)AV) were performed in spring 2011 to assess the capability of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to measure the structure of the transition zone between the convective boundary layer and the stably stratified free atmosphere. The campaign took place at the Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg/Richard-Aßmann-Observatory of the German Meteorological Service. Besides the M\(^2\)AV flights, observations were made from a 12-m and a 99-m tower, a sodar, two ceilometers, radiosondes, and a tethered balloon with sensor packages at six different levels. M\(^2\)AV measurements were intentionally combined with remote sensing systems. The height range of the entrainment zone as well as its diurnal cycle were provided by the remote sensing instruments. The UAV provided the high-resolution in situ data of temperature and wind for the study of turbulent processes. It is shown that the M\(^2\)AV is able to maintain constant altitude with very small deviations—a pre-requisite to study processes inside the often quite thin entrainment zone and that M\(^2\)AV high-resolution wind and temperature measurements allow for very detailed studies of the fine structure of the atmosphere and thus for the identification of quite local and/or short-duration processes such as overshooting thermals or downward intrusions of warm air. Spatial series measured by the M\(^2\)AV during horizontal flights show turbulent exchange of heat in short turbulent bursts at heights close to and within the entrainment zone. Scaled vertical profiles of vertical velocity, potential temperature variance, and sensible heat flux confirm the general shape found by previous measurements and numerical studies.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank C. Behrens and J. Heckmann for their participation in the measurement campaign in Lindenberg in March 2011 and their excellent performance as safety pilots. The operation of the tethered balloon by R. Begbie and K. Bisek deserves our thanks. We are much obliged to all three anonymous reviewers, their valuable comments contributed to improving the final version. The experiment was funded by the Niedersächsische Technische Hochschule (NTH).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Geoökologie, Technische Universität Carolo-Wilhelmina Braunschweig, Langer Kamp 19c, 38106 , Braunschweig, Germany

    Sabrina Martin

  2. Meteorological Observatory Lindenberg – Richard-Aßmann-Observatory, German Meteorological Service, Am Observatorium 12, 15848 , Tauche, OT Lindenberg, Germany

    Frank Beyrich

  3. Centre for Applied Geoscience, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Hölderlinstr. 12, 72074 , Tübingen, Germany

    Jens Bange

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  1. Sabrina Martin
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  2. Frank Beyrich
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  3. Jens Bange
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Correspondence to Sabrina Martin.

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Martin, S., Beyrich, F. & Bange, J. Observing Entrainment Processes Using a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicle: A Feasibility Study. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 150, 449–467 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10546-013-9880-4

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