Energy efficient UAS flight planning for characterizing features of supercell thunderstorms

This work considers a new application area for autonomous soaring through the examination of the energetic environment contained in supercell thunderstorms in an effort to extend sampling mission duration. It identifies the gust front associated with the rear-flank downdraft of the supercell thunderstorm as an interesting candidate for such a mission, and examines the potential for soaring in the region. This knowledge is combined with sampling techniques employed in previous field experiments to produce an energy efficient path at an altitude and location identified as an interesting area for in situ sampling. The path is tested using a flight through simulated storm data, and is shown to provide a net positive gain in energy to the vehicle. This encouraging result indicates the possibility of extending the sampling mission from its current limited length to a significant portion of the storm evolution, a capability that could provide invaluable information about the causes of tornadogenesis.