Finding Answers in the Clouds

Automated flying science experiments have shown that air pollution may help keep the planet cool. Because sunlight is reflecting back into space, reducing air pollution could make global warming worse, researchers found.

Instruments on board autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs) measured turbulence, solar radiation, humidity and other variables in the particulate-laden haze formed from plumes of air pollution, also called brown clouds, over the Maldives, a collection of tropical islands in the central Indian Ocean.

In the Maldives experiments, each flight of AUAVs consisted of three aircraft flying in a parallel formation at different altitudes. While in flight, the AUAVs followed a pre-arranged flight pattern, but a pilot on the ground could also guide the lead aircraft using a live video feed into different areas of the clouds. The two other AUAVs then automatically followed the lead plane's direction.

The AUAVs are also substantially cheaper to operate than manned aircraft, meaning they can make more flights and observations.

"Our work in the Maldives has made us think about robotic measurements as the way of the future," said lead researcher V. Ramanathan of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, "except it's here right now."

The team's results, some of which were published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, will help create more accurate climate models. The researchers plan to use the AUAVs to study air pollution off the coast of China during the upcoming Olympic games.

-- LiveScience Staff

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Image Credit: Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego