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Researchers from CU Boulder flew drones into severe storms this spring听for project TORUS, one of the largest and most ambitious drone-based听investigations of meteorological phenomena ever, with students leading听much of the work.

Project TORUS鈥擳argeted Observation by Radars and UAS of听Supercells鈥攊s a partnership between CU Boulder, the University of听Nebraska-Lincoln (which is leading the work), Texas Tech University,听the University of Oklahoma and the National Severe Storms听Laboratory听that will continue into 2020. The goal of the project is to collect data to听improve the conceptual model of supercell thunderstorms鈥攖he parent听storms of the most destructive tornadoes鈥攖o improve forecasting.听According to Smead Aerospace Professor Eric Frew, a principal听investigator on the project, better forecasting means more warning time听and fewer false alarms, which could save lives in the future.

鈥淲hat was really exciting about what we were able to accomplish was听that these drones were designed, fielded and operated by students,鈥澨鼺rew said. 鈥淚 had sophomores and juniors on this team accomplishing听something that had never been done before.鈥�

Funding for the project came from the National Science Foundation and听the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Support also听came from the CU Boulder Grand Challenge.

CU Boulder鈥檚 portion of the project was led by baby直播app from the College听of Engineering and Applied Science through the Integrated Remote听and In Situ Sensing initiative. The team was responsible for piloting听up to three drones around the storms simultaneously to measure听temperature, pressure, humidity and wind speeds. Drones are a critical听component of the overall TORUS project because they sense data from听inside the storm鈥攄ata that cannot be obtained without physically being听there to take the measurements. That听information will be combined听with remote sensing data obtained by the other collaborators collected听around the same storm later.

In all, the CU Boulder team totaled over 40 hours of air time on 51听flights, including seven tornado-producing storms, over the nearly听monthlong deployment throughout the Great Plains.

The university has been using drones for this type of work since 2010听and was the first in the world to do so. The lessons learned over the听years informed the design of the new unmanned aircraft used this听spring. Built from lightweight yet high-strength foam from听RiteWing RC,听the drones include an avionics system and many other aspects custombuilt听by the team. They are also modular in design, allowing for fast and听easy repairs in the field.

Aerospace engineering senior Danny Liebert pilots one of the drones for听the team and said he loves how rugged it is compared to the previous听鈥淭Twistor鈥� model.

鈥淭he TTwistor drone we used was great but just not as durable. These听new aircraft are awesome. They take it like a champ out there,鈥� he said.听Frew said he can envision a future in which drones are used as forward听deployment tools for weather prediction and data collection. Work on听TORUS and future projects can make that a reality.

鈥淲e can see the technology advancing to a point where small towns听or individuals have these drones and they release them into precursor听environments to help feed into the weather forecasting system, much听like the citizen scientists who report temperature and snow or water听accumulations every day around the U.S.,鈥� he said.