Many outstanding problems in meteorology and climate research would benefit greatly from the availability of inexpensive in-situ measurements of the atmosphere, particularly in remote regions of the globe such as over the oceans where conventional measurement systems are few or non-existent. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has developed a family of lightweight digital dropwindsondes, and Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation has developed a low-cost Unmanned Scientific Research Aircraft (USRA) called Perseus. The goal of this SBIR project is to combine the digital dropwindsonde with the with the USRA to produce a flexible, low-cost system for providing in-situ atmospheric measurements. During Phase I, the principal investigators will fabricate a dispenser for the NCAR dropwindsondes and install it on the Aurora Perseus proof-of- concept aircraft. The dispenser concept will be tested as part of Perseus' engineering flight tests in early 1991. The receiver and data processing unit for this demonstration will be ground based. During Phase II, a dedicated airborne data collection and processing system will be developed.
