SARDI Workshop Edinburgh Hotel Adelaide Feb09 - Airborne

105 Pages·2009·20.53 MB·English

Studying the Environment
Using Research Aircraft
Flying between 50ft and 50,000ft
Presentation at the Edinburgh Hotel, Adelaide, 16 Feb 2009
Jorg M. Hacker
Flinders University
Airborne Research Australia - ARA
Flinders Centre for Airborne Research – FCAR
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY
ADELAIDE ● AUSTRALIA
Overview – “50ft” – “50,000ft” – some impressions
and the toolkit for our work
A few examples:
River Catchment Hydrology - NAFE (National Airborne Field Experiment)
The Rabbit Proof Fence – giant outdoor laboratory
Erosion along Tropical Rivers
(Mitchell River, Cape YorkePeninsula)
Studying turbulence and mountain waves over the Andes in South America
FCAR/ARA tools and infrastructure
Four special-design research aircraft
Operations Base at Parafield Airport
Hi-res Camera
Instrumentation and Processing Software
up to 14 flasks (intake/pump in pod;
(glass flasks for CO, etc.; steel flasks for VOC's)
2
ARA - Airborne Research Australia
Australia’s National Research Aircraft Facility
(no recurrent funding – 100% self-funding)
hosted by
The Flinders University of South Australia
established with support from the Commonwealth of Australia’s
Major National Research Facilities Program
“Airborne measurements are very expensive”
“It is difficult to integrate instrumentation into aircraft”
“Only large organisation can use aircraft for research”
WRONG !!
N.B.: crop sensing has probably used small aircraft for longer than most other similar areas
Traditional approach:
Large aircraft
19” boxes in racks
substantial (and
expensive) modifications
to aircraft
TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
Mainframe computer (cid:198) PC
Manually operated systems (cid:198) Microprocessor controlled systems
Complex, heavy navigation systems (nav/attitude, INS) (cid:198) GPS/IMU
Metal airframes (cid:198) composite airframes
Big, noisy, dirty aircraft engines (cid:198) small, quiet, clean engines
“Traditional” survey/research aircraft (cid:198) SERA
SERA - Small Environmental Research Aircraft
ARA pioneered this concept and is now one of the world leaders
SERA – Small Environmental Research Aircraft – 1909 Version
Carrier pigeon with aerial camera, 1909
Photo taken by PigeonCam, 1909.
From:
Manual of Remote Sensing, 1975
Via Prof. L Bannehr, TH Dessau, Germany
N
.B SERA today. . .
.
:

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(identical)

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(cid:11) Payload up to 150 kg in underwing pods or external hard points, and in cockpit (excl. crew)
(cid:11) 20-60 m/s cruising speed at flying altitudes from 5 m to 7,000 m
(75 –200 km/h)
(cid:11) typical range up to 1,000 km, typical endurance 6 hours
(cid:11) extensive safety features – modern carbonfibre airframe – clean, quiet engine
(exceeding safety standards of normal “Cessnas”, etc) (Premium Unleaded Fuel)
(cid:11) UAV-like flight characteristics and features
SERA
Small
Environmental
Research
Aircraft
…probing the environment using the least intrusive
and
most cost-efficient airborne technology
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY
Network of Airborne
ADELAIDE ● AUSTRALIA
Environmental Research Scientists