Drones on EARTH Magazine

Eyes in the sea: Swarms of floating robots observe the oceans

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 12:31:05 -0500

When Scripps biological oceanographer Peter Franks needed a way to mimic planktonic movements in the ocean, Scripps research oceanographer Jules Jaffe created low-cost "miniature autonomous underwater explorers," or M-AUEs. The M-AUEs can be deployed in swarms to track planktonic movements as well as small-scale circulation patterns, oil spill dispersion or even sewage movement. Credit: Jaffe Lab for Underwater Imaging, Scripps Oceanography, UC San Diego.

In 1999, Peter Franks, a biological oceanographer at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, published a hypothesis that, to his knowledge, nobody had previously considered. Using a mathematical model, he showed how tiny zooplankton and phytoplankton could interact with ocean currents driven by internal waves — slow-moving waves within the ocean that form between water layers of differing density — and form patchy bands running parallel to shorelines. These patches of plankton could benefit from being squeezed together by wave action, he thought, by being better able to feed, survive or even reproduce.

Comment: A moving target: What you need to know about drone regulations

Fri, 16 Jun 2017 14:34:19 -0400

In 2015, about 700,000 drones were sold in the U.S. In 2016, the number exceeded 2.5 million. And the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has estimated that annual sales will reach 7 million in 2020, with fewer than half of those being operated by commercial users. Drones, or unmanned aerial systems (UASs), have gone from expensive tools primarily used for military and other high-end applications to easily accessible devices used widely for recreation, education, research and everyday commercial enterprises. Reduced costs, wide availability and a growing number of models designed for diverse applications have made drones exceptionally popular.

Observers at the edge of the ice: Smaller, cheaper machines can safely go where humans can't

Wed, 17 Aug 2016 10:23:05 -0400

Tourists and glaciologists alike want to get as close to glaciers as is safely possible. Credit: Gary Bembridge, CC BY 2.0 Credit: Gary Bembridge, CC BY 2.0.

Any tourist bound for Greenland or Alaska on a cruise ship would be happy to capture video of a huge chunk of ice as it calves from the face of a glacier hundreds of meters tall or more — filmed from a safe distance of course. When it hits the ocean below, falling ice can send up cascading walls of water that could capsize or drown any vessel that dares too close.

Droning on for science

Wed, 12 Jun 2013 14:27:47 -0400

The Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research Aircraft (SIERRA) on the tarmac at NASA's Crows Landing Airport in California. Courtesy of Jonathan Glen, USGS

A high-resolution aerial photograph of an alligator near Lake Okeechobee taken from the Nova 2.1 UAV. J. Martin et al., 2012, PLOS ONE

Amid rolling green pastureland dotted with livestock and the occasional cluster of trees, Costa Rica’s imposing Volcán Turrialba rises 600 meters above the surrounding landscape about 40 kilometers east-northeast of San José. On a clear day last March, a light column of volcanic steam rose from Turrialba — as it has steadily for several years — while a twin-propeller airplane made slow passes through the plume and over the mountain’s summit and flank.