TULSA, OKLA. — Scientists are using drones more and more to save lives in severe weather and will be able to help gather timely data that can lead to more accurate forecasts in the future.
Since last week, The International Society for Atmospheric Research Using Remotely Piloted Aircraft Conference has been at Oklahoma State University in Tulsa. The conference continues through this week, which is called Flight Week.
Hosted by The Oklahoma Aerospace Institute for Research and Education at OSU, the conference has brought together schools, universities, government research institutes, and experts from around the world that currently use, or plan to use, remotely piloted aircraft systems for atmospheric and environmental research.
One company, Meteomatics, has been building weather drones for about 10 years. They brought their autonomous drones to the conference to showcase what they can do.
"If you think about things like severe weather and tornadoes that happen here in Oklahoma, meteorologists need to know what's happening in the atmosphere right now to be able to make good predictions and warn people about the danger," said Brad Guay who is a meteorologist and team lead with Meteomatics.
Currently, meteorologists such as myself, mostly rely on weather balloon data for a snapshot of the vertical profile of the atmosphere.
"Right now, we have weather balloon launches at a couple of locations around Oklahoma but it's only a couple of times a day and it's also quite costly — can be up to $500 and more every time we send up a balloon," explained Guay.
The weather community is trying to get more drones to be used to improve observations and forecasts in the next couple of years. The drones that are used by Meteomatics can fly up to 20,000 feet and collect temperature, humidity, and wind among other parameters.
"So drones can help to fill that, get more data in more locations, and let the meteorologists know what's happening, and help them to keep people better prepared and better informed ahead of severe weather," said Guay.
Author note: Brandon Wholey serves as an AMS Certified Meteorologist with 2 News Oklahoma, KJRH-TV.
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