The Peacewing Prototype Project

Vectored Earth Observing System (VEOS) for the New Millennium

The demonstration of a Vectored Earth Observing System (VEOS) for severe weather forecasting, disaster management, and environmental monitoring is being studied by an interagency team lead by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration's Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL). The Peacewing Prototype Project (PPP) will demonstrate the unique capabilities of an uninhabited aerial vehicle (UAV) using passive microwave and hyperspectral optical imagers to provide targeted high-resolution maps of developing weather along with post-event assessment of ecosystem change and infrastructural damage caused by severe environmental events. The PPP is designed as a precursor effort leading to an operational version of the Peacewing UAV - as modeled upon the vision proposed by the U.S. State Department for the Global Disaster Information Network (GDIN). The Peacewing platform will ultimately be capable of providing spatio-temporal sampling both greatly exceeding and complimentary to that available from satellites, and at a fraction of the infrastructural, operating, and human-risk costs.

The prototype project will use AeroVironment's Pathfinder Plus (PF+) UAV in a major field experiment to study aerosol, cloud, and rain relationships, ocean wind vector imaging, coral and crop change assessment, and land surface wetness. As part of the project, very high resolution optical imagery will be collected over time-sensitive ground targets selected by disaster managers, thus emulating near-real-time observational capabilities in support of rescue exercises. The instruments to be flown include NOAA/ETL's Airborne CMIS Emulator (ACE) and Advanced Power Technology, Incorporated's (APTI) Aurora 6000 hyperspectral imaging system.

The field phase of the project will be focused on three scientific experiments. The aerosol, cloud, and rain experiment study will focus on the determination of the effects of natural aerosols on the inhibition of orographically-induced rainfall. The regional-scale numerical weather prediction (NWP) experiment will focus on the predictability of precipitation using sub-mesoscale surface wind data, moisture, temperature, and cloud liquid data. The coral, crop, and land wetness experiment will focus on the spectral changes associated with vegetation and environmental stress and on the estimation of standing water and infrastructural damage.

Successful demonstration of Peacewing on Pathfinder+ will provide the basis for the development of a permanent VEOS based on, e.g., Helios-class UAVs, providing extreme endurance, all-weather operation, and broad societal application in the 2007-2010 time frame. A briefing describing the potential for using UAVs for operational targeted weather observations, disaster management, and ecosystem monitoring was presented to the NOAA North American Observing Systems (NAOS) council on September 7, 2000 (download briefing).

Support for the risk-reduction phase of the PPP is being provided by NASA under its UAV-based science demonstration program. Co-investigators on the PPP include personnel from the following agencies, institutions, and companies:

NOAA Research/Environmental Technology Laboratory

NOAA National Ocean Service

NOAA/NESDIS National Geophysical Data Center

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

U.S. State Department

Aerovironment, Inc.

Advanced Power Technologies, Inc.

University of Colorado/CIRES

University of Oklahoma

Pacific Missile Range Facility

The risk reduction phase of the PPP project will be ongoing through the end of calendar year 2000. Further information on the project can be obtained through the principal investigator, Dr. Al Gasiewski,  at al.gasiewski@noaa.gov or (303) 497-7275.

Last updated: September 13, 2000.