TY - JOUR
T1 - Design and field campaign validation of a multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle and optical particle counter
AU - Girdwood, Joseph
AU - Smith, Helen R.
AU - Stanley, Warren
AU - Ulanowski, Joseph
AU - Stopford, Chris
AU - Chemel, Charles
AU - Doulgeris, Konstantinos-Matthaios
AU - Brus, David
AU - Campbell, David
AU - Mackenzie, Robert
N1 - © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
PY - 2020/12/7
Y1 - 2020/12/7
N2 - Small unmanned aircraft (SUA) have the potential to be used as platforms for the measurement of atmospheric particulates. The use of an SUA platform for these measurements provides benefits such as high manoeuvrability, re-usability, and low-cost when compared with traditional techniques. However, the complex aerodynamics of an SUA (particularly for multirotor airframes), combined with the miniaturisation of particle instruments poses difficulties for accurate and representative sampling of particulates. The work presented here relies on computational fluid dynamics with Lagrangian particle tracking (CFD-LPT) simulations to influence the design of a bespoke meteorological sampling system: the UH-AeroSAM. This consists of a custom built airframe, designed to reduce sampling artefacts due to the propellers, and a purpose built open-path optical particle counter–the Ruggedised Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (RCASS). OPC size distribution measurements from the UH-AeroSAM are compared with the Cloud and Aerosol Precipitation Spectrometer (CAPS) for measurements of Stratus cloud during the Pallas Cloud Experiment (PaCE) in 2019. Good agreement is demonstrated between the two instruments. The integrated dN/dlog(Dp) is shown to have a coefficient of determination of 0.8, and a regression slope of 0.9 when plotted 1:1.
AB - Small unmanned aircraft (SUA) have the potential to be used as platforms for the measurement of atmospheric particulates. The use of an SUA platform for these measurements provides benefits such as high manoeuvrability, re-usability, and low-cost when compared with traditional techniques. However, the complex aerodynamics of an SUA (particularly for multirotor airframes), combined with the miniaturisation of particle instruments poses difficulties for accurate and representative sampling of particulates. The work presented here relies on computational fluid dynamics with Lagrangian particle tracking (CFD-LPT) simulations to influence the design of a bespoke meteorological sampling system: the UH-AeroSAM. This consists of a custom built airframe, designed to reduce sampling artefacts due to the propellers, and a purpose built open-path optical particle counter–the Ruggedised Cloud and Aerosol Sounding System (RCASS). OPC size distribution measurements from the UH-AeroSAM are compared with the Cloud and Aerosol Precipitation Spectrometer (CAPS) for measurements of Stratus cloud during the Pallas Cloud Experiment (PaCE) in 2019. Good agreement is demonstrated between the two instruments. The integrated dN/dlog(Dp) is shown to have a coefficient of determination of 0.8, and a regression slope of 0.9 when plotted 1:1.
U2 - 10.5194/amt-13-6613-2020
DO - 10.5194/amt-13-6613-2020
M3 - Article
SN - 1867-1381
VL - 13
SP - 6613
EP - 6630
JO - Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
JF - Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
IS - 12
ER -