You're invited to attend
Gebhardt Distinguished Lecture:
Supercells to Supersonics
Aerospace Engineering for Atmospheric Research
featuring
Brian M. Argrow
Director, Integrated Remote In Situ Sensing Program (IRISS)
Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences
University of Colorado Boulder
Thursday, October 24
3:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Guggenheim 442
About the Seminar:
Who do atmospheric scientist call when they need measurements in inaccessible locations, at specific times, and in environments too dangerous for humans? Aerospace Engineers. The Research & Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV) has been integrating aerospace technologies, telecommunications, and computer science into uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS). In 2004 RECUV developed and deployed the Airborne UAS and Ground Network (AUGNet) to support mobile communications for the U.S. Air Force, while simultaneously engaged with FAA to overcome regulatory challenges for the first in-situ data collection from a small UAS in thunderstorms in 2009, and the first measurements in a tornadic supercell in 2010. Created in 2015, the Integrated Remote & In Situ Sensing program (IRISS) is enabling multiple-UAS operations for in-situ data measurements on scales complementing the most advanced remote and in-situ assets, including static and mobile radars, mesonets, and hurricane hunter aircraft redirected for supercell research. In 2019, IRISS deployed its RAAVEN UAS (featured in the 2024 movie Twisters) into supercell storms simultaneously with stratospheric balloons carrying fine-wire instruments for in-situ turbulence measurements in the stratosphere near the supercells for the AFOSR Hypersonic Flight in the Turbulent Stratosphere (HYFLITS) campaign. These balloon-borne instruments were deployed in 2021 and 2022 for stratospheric measurements supporting USAF hypersonic flight tests, respectively in Sweden and the U.S.
This retrospective begins the talk on the engineering/science/regulatory collaborative research producing technologies enabling small UAS to carry sensors into dynamic atmospheric environments inaccessible to crewed aircraft. Sensor fusion and state estimation challenges for integrating aircraft systems with scientific instruments including fault tolerance in conditions that degrade or disable sensors will be discussed, and results from field campaigns will be presented. The talk concludes with a prospective of research challenges for atmospheric measurements with uncrewed aeronautical systems from supercells to supersonics.
About the Speaker:
Brian Argrow is Distinguished Professor and Glenn Murphy Endowed Chair in the Ann and H.J. Smead Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences. He is founding Director of the Integrated Remote & In-Situ Sensing Program (IRISS) and founding Director (emeritus) of the Research and Engineering Center for Unmanned Vehicles (RECUV). His research covers the design and deployment of small UAS to high-speed aero-gasdynamics and hypersonics. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He received the Department of the Air Force Exemplary Civilian Service Award for service on the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board.