Results and Lessons Learned from the 2024 SCALES Intercomparison Effort
Presenter Abstract
The International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) organized a flight week as part of their 2024 annual meeting, which took place in Oklahoma, USA from September 8-13. Small-UAS Coordination for Atmospheric Low-Level Environmental Sampling (SCALES) had three primary research foci: (1) distributed profiling across northeast Oklahoma to examine the 3D Mesonet concept; (2) urban heat island observations in Tulsa; and (3) turbulence measurements for validating building-resolving large-eddy simulations. In addition to these research objectives, SCALES sought to address WMO UAS-DC objectives of determining the accuracy of current state-of-the-art WxUAS. This supplemental objective is crucial for integration of WxUAS into the observation network.
Over 15 teams from academia, government agencies and industry committed over 40 WxUAS platforms to support the SCALES effort. Given the wide variety of WxUAS brought by the ISARRA community, an intercomparison of all the systems was necessary to establish the baseline accuracy for each system and calibrate their measurements to a common standard. Thus, the first day of SCALES was devoted to flying all platforms next to well-characterized WxUAS, radiosondes, ground-based remote sensors, and meteorological towers with sensor heights ranging from 2 to 18 m. The reference datasets were all analyzed for consistency and bias corrections were applied if necessary. Then these reference measurements were used to assess the bias and uncertainty of each WxUAS participating in SCALES, and to determine necessary corrections prior to including their observations in the intended scientific analysis. This presentation will provide an overview of the results from these comparisons and provide some lessons learned that will be incorporated into the 2026 Flight Week intercomparison.
Presentations
Presented in Session 8: New Observations III
Results and Lessons Learned from the 2024 SCALES Intercomparison Effort
The International Society for Atmospheric Research using Remotely piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) organized a flight week as part of their 2024 annual meeting, which took place in Oklahoma, USA from September 8-13. Small-UAS Coordination for Atmospheric Low-Level Environmental Sampling (SCALES) had three primary research foci: (1) distributed profiling across northeast Oklahoma to examine the 3D Mesonet concept; (2) urban heat island observations in Tulsa; and (3) turbulence measurements for validating building-resolving large-eddy simulations. In addition to these research objectives, SCALES sought to address WMO UAS-DC objectives of determining the accuracy of current state-of-the-art WxUAS. This supplemental objective is crucial for integration of WxUAS into the observation network.
Over 15 teams from academia, government agencies and industry committed over 40 WxUAS platforms to support the SCALES effort. Given the wide variety of WxUAS brought by the ISARRA community, an intercomparison of all the systems was necessary to establish the baseline accuracy for each system and calibrate their measurements to a common standard. Thus, the first day of SCALES was devoted to flying all platforms next to well-characterized WxUAS, radiosondes, ground-based remote sensors, and meteorological towers with sensor heights ranging from 2 to 18 m. The reference datasets were all analyzed for consistency and bias corrections were applied if necessary. Then these reference measurements were used to assess the bias and uncertainty of each WxUAS participating in SCALES, and to determine necessary corrections prior to including their observations in the intended scientific analysis. This presentation will provide an overview of the results from these comparisons and provide some lessons learned that will be incorporated into the 2026 Flight Week intercomparison.