TruWeather Solutions To Demonstrate UAS Weather Drone at AUVSI XPONENTIAL

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TruWeather Solutions, a U.S. micro weather data and analytics company, will demonstrate the weather-collecting capabilities of Switzerland-based MeteomaticsMeteodrone, at the Association for Uncrewed Vehicle Systems Internationals XPONENTIAL 2022.

XPONENTIAL, a world premier event, is taking place from April 25th through the 28th at the Orange County Convention Center-West in Orlando, Florida.

TruWeathers flight demonstrations will illustrate the importance of measuring and detecting dynamic weather and wind changes above the Earths surface, and educate why having low altitude weather measurements are vital to safe and efficient beyond-visual-line-of-sight (BVLOS) drone operations.

According to TruWeathers CEO, Don Berchoff, a retired U.S. Air Force Colonel and former National Weather Service Science and Technology Director, existing weather models lack sufficient measurement data in the mid and lower levels of the atmosphere. Despite great advancements in numerical weather predictions, a lack of real weather measurements cause uncertain predictions associated with fog and low clouds, thunderstorm development locations, low level wind speeds and wind shear, freezing fog or drizzle and icing in clouds. Fortunately, larger aircraft with a pilot on-board can react to uncertain conditions when it unexpectedly occurs.  Unmanned vehicles, as we have seen, experience operational and business impacts as a result of what Berchoff calls, the weather desert data.”  A lack of data means invisible” threats go undetected and creates airworthiness risk as BVLOS operations scale for both small and large drone operations.

The Meteodrone, an autonomous uncrewed aircraft system (UAS), can fill in these data gaps. A mobile weather station, its 6-rotor electric vertical take-off-and-landing (eVTOL) vehicle design allows it to collect high-resolution and direct temperature, humidity, barometric pressure and wind measurements at altitudes of up to 16,900 feet. The Meteodrones rotor heating system allows it to fly safely in extreme conditions, enabling ice detection in clouds and providing critical information for UAS operators to enhance safety-of-flight and repeatable large BVLOS operations.

TruWeather will fly the Meteodrone at XPONENTIAL to illustrate the power in collecting  real weather measurements to UAS program managers, schedulers, dispatchers, public safety and emergency management personnel and state, local, tribal and territorial government entities. In many locations, winds at the surface level can be very different from 80 meters above ground level, and weather predictions and surface weather observations do not represent reality aloft.

The company previously demonstrated this capability at the XElevate UAS facility in Leesburg, Virginia, as well as at the University at Albany, SUNY ETEC Building.

The XPONENTIAL Meteodrone demonstrations also serve as a soft launch of an anticipated late 2022 statewide micro-weather service roll out with Grand Sky in North Dakota.

Grand Sky, a 217-acre business and commercial UAS-focused business park in Grand Forks, North Dakota, offers numerous amenities for UAS operations including a 12,351-foot runway, open airspace, flight operations support and a FAA-approved Beyond Visual Line of Sight flight system. The Grand Sky BVLOS system allows operators to fly within the 5,600 square mile envelope covered by the system.

Grand Sky is also home to Vantis, the first-of-its-kind statewide BVLOS uncrewed traffic management network.

TruWeather is entering into a contract with the Grand Sky team to provide comprehensive weather data and forecasting to UAS operators at the park. TruWeather is also helping to bring Meteodrone to Grand Sky to develop better forecasts that are expected to increase the number of flight operations by reducing weather-related cancellations.

Berchoff, who spent years advising military operators on weather risks, explained some larger UAS are not authorized to fly when forecasts indicate trace or light” icing conditions.  For Advanced Air Mobility or higher altitude drone intelligence collection, icing will drive higher no-go rates, especially as heavier lift cargo drones fly in clouds, particularly in winter climates, such as at Grand Forks, without better measurements aloft.  He estimates 30 percent of canceled or delayed flights are recoverable with real icing measurements from the Meteodrone. We anticipate that reducing the number of unnecessary weather delays or cancellations will translate into more flight time and revenue generation per airframe during edge case weather hazard conditions,” he said.

TruWeather expects that proving the value of the Meteodrone and the return on investment associated with this systemwill lead to more investment and deployment of novel weather sensors, including camera technology, in North Dakota and beyond. 

The Grand Sky project is one of several recent collaborations that continues to expand TruWeathers growing weather sensor ecosystem. TruWeather recently announced a partnership with Iris Automation to provide real-time integrated communications, collision avoidance and micro-weather data to operators.

Watch TruWeather and the Meteodrone in action at XPONENTIAL for nine demonstrations Tuesday through Thursday.

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