Description: Safe Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) operations and airspace management depend on accurate weather data to make critical decisions, plan fleet asset tasking, schedule cargo or people movements, reduce flight uncertainty and meet client expectations. Accurate weather data requires a robust, autonomous and reliable sensing platform capable of detecting multiple weather hazards across urban, suburban and rural domains. Weather data are a crucial building block for Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), especially over urban areas where the operations are expected to become routine in complex environments. High-resolution weather measurements are necessary to detect relevant hazards in urban environments, and ultimately improve forecasts. This Phase II effort consists on developing algorithms to retrieve ceiling, cloud base, and visibility to enhance the utility of Doppler lidars that will already be utilized to measure wind in urban areas, making lidars multipurpose sensors. This work will improve algorithms developed in the Phase I portion and quantitatively assess the value of Doppler lidars as part of an urban sensing network for business justification. Additionally, optimal scanning strategies will be established as well as uncertainty metrics to inform risk-based decision making. These efforts will address significant gaps in urban airspace weather situational awareness critical to reach a mission safety level as required in the Urban Weather section of the NASA UAM UML-4 CONOPS.

Benefits: This initiative enables NASA applications that depend on highly reliable and persistent non-government space, atmospheric and terrestrial measurements and predictions: Commercial space launches and human space travel ATM / UAS / UTM / UAM Systems, Industries, and Projects Satellite and communication systems UAS and UAM is a “blue sky” mission area to demonstrate how weather monitoring systems, especially in urban areas, can reduce the impact of hazardous events to mission critical operations.

Our applications for this technology extend to FAA and commercial endeavors of the same mission areas that NASA is working in, namely: Commercial space launches and human space travel ATM / UAS / UTM / UAM Satellite and communication systems We are also looking at how cities can use urban micro weather data as part of Smart City initiatives by deploying weather sensing platforms.