A P-3 Deployable Unmanned Aircraft for Scientific Measurement of Tropical Cyclones

This paper presents research conducted by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University performed in collaboration with scientists at NOAA’s Hurricane Research Center, Aircraft Operations Center, and UAS Program. For this project, a UAS is designed and developed for deployment into a tropical cyclone from WP-3D Orion aircraft via a sonobuoy tube delivery system. This paper will discuss the hurricane mission, the in-situ sensing requirements, the aircraft requirements, and initial results in the design and development of the overall system. The sensing requirements will focus on the integration of an existing scientic payload based on the GPS Dropsonde sensor, which are currently dropped by NOAA into tropical cyclones in-situ measurement (pressure, wind speed, temperature, and humidity), and necessary payload improvements to support continuous measurements along the UAS’ ight path. The paper presents a work-in-progress as our team moves