精品SM在线影片

Skip to main content

Designing UAVs to Help Predict Tornadoes - AIAA Spotlight on Brian Argrow

Brian Argrow

Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming more and more popular, but professor Brian Argrow, the for the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), is way ahead of the curve. He's been using the technology for over 15 years, and is part of a team aiming to use UAVs to predict tornadoes.

In 2004, Argrow became the founding director of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV) at CU. Asked what influenced him to begin focusing on UAV technology back in 2004, Argrow explained that, after having previously focused on high-speed aerodynamics, specifically nozzles, and then later dense-gas dynamics, during his graduate research, he later pivoted to a focus on UAS 鈥渋n part because of the influence of one of my career mentors, Mike Francis, who had returned to DARPA to run the J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Air System) program, and also to improve the balance of aeronautics research to space research鈥 in the university鈥檚 aerospace engineering department.

Argrow added that his 鈥減assion鈥 to work with meteorologists 鈥渢o create UAS to fly into supercell thunderstorms to support tornado research鈥 also influenced his transition to a focus on UAS/UAVs. He explained that he was 鈥渋nspired by the TornadoCHaser project at the University of Oklahoma鈥 that was nearing its conclusion as he completed his Ph.D. Members of the project, funded in part by National Geographic, 鈥渦nder the leadership of Profs. Karl Bergey and John Fagan,鈥 designed and built a small radio-controlled unmanned aircraft, but it was never deployed into a storm. Along with collaborators from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, CU鈥檚 UAS team 鈥渁ccomplished the first-ever supercell intercepts with a UAS in 2010,鈥 said Argrow.

Describing the ongoing initiative, Argrow said that beginning in 2010, his team鈥檚 initial goal for their first supercell intercept 鈥渨as to demonstrate the safe operation of a small UAS in the national airspace system to collect thermodynamic data in supercells to study 鈥榯ornadogenesis,鈥 or the 鈥榖irth鈥 of a tornado, during the 2nd Verification of the Origins of Rotation in Tornadoes Experiment (VORTEX2).鈥 Argrow added that in addition to collaborating with meteorologists to 鈥渂etter understand the mechanisms that trigger tornado formation,鈥 much of his department鈥檚 research data will be provided to forecasters, including to the National Weather Service, 鈥渢o increase tornado warning times and to decrease the false warning rates.鈥

Explaining how there appears to be some combination of thermodynamic conditions in the 鈥渞ear-flank downdraft鈥 that might signal the birth of a tornado, conditions that Argrow said are not able to be determined remotely 鈥渂y even the most advanced radar,鈥 he noted that his team has designed UAS 鈥渢o penetrate this area of the supercell for in-situ measurements that provide critical data to our meteorologist colleagues.鈥

When asked how this idea 鈥 of deploying UAVs as an advanced tornado warning system 鈥 was formed, Argrow said that it 鈥渟tarted with a couple of professors at the University of Oklahoma 鈥 the home of the 鈥榦riginal鈥 Stormchasers made famous in the movie 鈥楾wister.鈥欌

As for how far away we still are from full implementation and realization of this developing technology, Argrow explained that it鈥檚 not far. He said that his CU UAS team will be deploying to northern Oklahoma in late October 2016, where it will team with OU, as well as the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), on the evaluation of the 鈥減re-storm Environment Leading to initiation of Convection (EPIC) project.鈥

Find out more on AIAA's .