On the Implementation of Rain Enhancement Operational Maneuvers using UAS with Autonomous-Adaptive Technologies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.54782/hfmzyx05Abstract
The research team implemented a framework involving an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) with atmospheric and cloud microphysical sensing and autonomous adaptive control technologies that searched, identified, performed, monitored and evaluated cloud system candidates for successful cloud seeding operations to enhance precipitation using hygroscopic seeding agents. The implementation featured trials in the U.S. Great Plains area following U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations during a three-week summer field campaign. The trials provide a demonstrated step toward the potential for improved seeding targeting efficiency, and hence improved operational cloud seeding activity effectiveness. The implementation of the integrated UAS provided and exploited the temporal and spatial cloud-scale sensitivities to overcome the operational and natural uncertainties, or sparseness of environmental attributes, needed to increase cloud seeding operational efficiency. The following sections provide some background (Section 2.0), followed by results of the field campaign and their discussion (Section 3.0). Then some closing remarks and a recommendation for future work (Section 4.0).
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