One of the important elements of integrating hazardous weather avoidance into the unmanned aerial vehicle traffic management (UTM) is a model for translating the weather forecasts into time-varying…

This federal contract award, NNX15AK44A, was issued by the Shared Services Center (SSC), a civilian agency, to the San Jose State University Research Foundation, a nonprofit organization, to support the development of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Traffic Management (UTM) system. The key objectives are to: 1) provide on-site atmospheric sensing data to support UTM testing, 2) transfer real-time atmospheric data from the sensors into the UTM system, and 3) evaluate the High-Resolution Rapid Refresh (HRRR) weather data for UTM applications. This cooperative agreement has a ceiling value of $151,666.71 and does not have a set-aside designation. The work supports the "Weather Support for Unmanned Vehicle Systems Traffic Flow" major program at the agency. As a research arm of San Jose State University, the foundation has extensive experience conducting research and managing federal awards across a range of scientific and technical disciplines, including for NASA, the Department of Defense, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

One of the important elements of integrating hazardous weather avoidance into the unmanned aerial vehicle traffic management (UTM) is a model for translating the weather forecasts into time-varying estimates of the capacity reductions in affected airspace. NASA ames is leading an effort to develop the UTM system and is seeking to work with organizations to provide, translate, develop, and improve weather data for this system. Uavs (unmanned aerial vehicle) typically are not as robust to wind and adverse weather as manned aircraft, having less power and lower performance, no inflight deicing, and no on-board pilot to avoid adverse weather visually. An additional complication is that all UAS must at all times have a planned return to base flight path that is clear of adverse weather in case the loss of communications triggers an automatic return to base contingency plan. For these reasons accurate weather information, forecasts, and weather impact decision support tools are expected to play an important role in a UTM system. In this proposed activity, the PI and team will perform two tasks: 1) provide on-site atmospheric sensing in support of UTM testing, 2) provide expert advice and technical support to transfer real-time atmospheric data from their sensors into the UTM system, and 3) evaluation of the high resolution rapid refresh (hrrr) data for UTM applications.