A Sampling‐Based Path Planning Algorithm for Improving Observations in Tropical Cyclones
Justice Darko, Larkin Folsom, Hyoshin Park, Masashi Minamide, Masahiro Ono, Hui Su
2022
Earth and Space Science
The fundamental understanding of the boundary layer of tropical cyclones (TCs) plays a significant role in providing essential meteorological information. Located between the ocean and atmosphere, the boundary layer contains important information about the inner-core dynamics and requires a true and thorough examination to predict the track and intensity of TCs. An undesirable phenomenon, such as rapid intensification, drives the maximum sustained winds at least 30 kt in a 24 hr period and in
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... rticular requires an accurate prediction from an observation of the Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL) in the vicinity of the core (Cione et al., 2013) . In recent studies, inner-core observations have been collected with next-generation weather satellites (Zhang et al., 2019) . Nonetheless, targeted high-resolution in situ observations using small Unmanned Aircraft System (sUAS) platforms can significantly improve meteorological information (Pillar-Little et al., 2020) about the inner-core and eventually improve the prediction of TC. The sUAS program (Cione et al., 2016; de Boer et al., 2019; Zhang & Cione, 2021) , introduced by the NOAA national hurricane center air reconnaissance programs, well supported the task of monitoring targeted critical layers of a TC. Each sUAS is launched from a tube attached to a P3 hurricane hunter aircraft and controlled remotely from the airplane to be deployed to the lower layer of the PBL, which is extremely dangerous for manned aircraft measurement. However, those existing sUAS deployment has several limitations that can be significantly improved by the proposed observing system. First, the sUAS program has focused on successfully collecting data with drone flight patterns (e.g., eyewall and inflow module) conceived from procedures described in NOAA's Hurricane Research Division Annual Hurricane Field Program. However, these predefined navigation procedures do not necessarily consider how data gathered from a flight path impacts and improves the posterior estimate of the TC at a future time from an earlier prior estimate of the TC. The predefined navigation procedures do not necessarily consider how data gathered from a flight path improves the hurricane forecasting. The criteria for
doi:10.1029/2020ea001498
fatcat:mnu36yokuvgqjhkvkp5tbmw57i