Drones are not new, nor are climate scientists only now discovering their utility as research tools. “Back in 1998, we used what was considered a smaller UAV at that time” for studying ice cover in the Arctic, says James Maslanik, a research professor emeritus from the aerospace engineering sciences department at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
“It was a cutting-edge system, it was way ahead of its time,” he says of the fixed-wing UAV they employed. It had a three-meter wingspan, a four-kilogram payload limit, and was gas-powered. Maslanik recalls having to drag 50-gallon drums of aviation fuel up to their research station in the Arctic just to get the UAV in the air.
Today’s drones — both rotor-based designs, like quadcopters, and fixed-wing versions, which look like shrunken conventional planes — are far more affordable, portable, usable, and capable than what Maslanik was working with a decade ago. That’s thanks to the miniaturization of their electronic components, the falling price and size of the cameras and sensors that they carry, and the capabilities of their propulsion systems, which in most cases are now battery powered.
More Nimble, Accessible
Prior to the emergence of drones, aerial surveys could only be done through the use of manned aircraft or by accessing satellite images, but both of these approaches have significant limitations.
Chartering a plane is generally far more expensive than using a drone and less reliable, since weather can quickly stymie a flight plan. Plus, chartering a plane generally means scheduling it days in advance. By contrast, researchers do need the Federal Aviation Administration’s permission to operate a drone, but once they have it, they can use the devices whenever they want, as long as wind speeds are within the particular UAV’s threshold.
David Johnston, an assistant professor at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, says of the switch from chartering planes to using UAVs: “We can go from [launching a drone] to having workable data in four hours, versus maybe four days if we’re using an airplane.”
Plus, a drone is more nimble than manned aircraft and can be piloted at lower altitudes. Satellite imagery has been a boon to researchers, but cloud cover can make it useless, and it often lacks the resolution needed to do precise work, such as counting animals.
It might sound mundane, but counting animals is a key part of climate research in coastal areas, where population dynamics are strongly tied to changes in factors such as water temperature, food sources, or the loss of sea ice. In early 2015, Johnston led a team that used small fixed-wing drones — the eBee senseFly manufactured by Parrot — to count gray seals along the icy shores of islands off Newfoundland and Labrador. The species was nearly extirpated in the 1820s, but its numbers have been growing since the 1980s. Today, it faces multiple threats from climate change: warmer temperatures have had impacts on its breeding patterns, and, in the Arctic, melting ice is exposing the seals to a deadly parasite.
To read the full article published in Pacific Standard Magazine, click here.