Development of community, capabilities, and understanding through unmanned aircraft-based atmospheric research: The LAPSE-RATE campaign

Because unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offer new perspectives on the atmosphere, their use in atmospheric science is expanding rapidly. In support of this growth, the International Society for Atmospheric Research Using Remotely-Piloted Aircraft (ISARRA) has been developed and has convened annual meetings and "flight weeks." The 2018 flight week, dubbed the Lower Atmospheric Profiling Studies at Elevation-A Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Team Experiment (LAPSE-RATE), involved a 1-week deployment to Colorado's San Luis Valley. Between 14 and 20 July 2018 over 100 students, scientists, engineers, pilots, and outreach coordinators conducted an intensive field operation using unmanned aircraft and ground-based assets to develop datasets, community, and capabilities. In addition to a coordinated "Community Day" which offered a chance for groups to share their aircraft and science with the San Luis Valley community, LAPSE-RATE participants conducted nearly 1,300 research flights totaling over 250 flight hours. The measurements collected have been used to advance capabilities (instrumentation, platforms, sampling techniques, and modeling tools), conduct a detailed system intercomparison study, develop new collaborations, and foster community support for the use of UAS in atmospheric science.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links

Related Service #1 : Cheyenne: SGI ICE XA Cluster
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author de Boer, G.
Diehl, C.
Jacob, J.
Houston, A.
Smith, S. W.
Chilson, P.
Schmale, D. G.
Intrieri, J.
Pinto, James
Elston, J.
Brus, D.
Kemppinen, O.
Clark, A.
Lawrence, D.
Bailey, S. C. C.
Sama, M. P.
Frazier, A.
Crick, C.
Natalie, V.
Pillar-Little, E.
Klein, P.
Waugh, S.
Lundquist, J. K.
Barbieri, L.
Kral, S. T.
Jensen, Anders A.
Dixon, C.
Borenstein, S.
Hesselius, D.
Human, K.
Hall, P.
Argrow, B.
Thornberry, T.
Wright, R.
Kelly, J. T.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2020-05-29T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-07-11T19:18:52.814104
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:23429
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation de Boer, G., Diehl, C., Jacob, J., Houston, A., Smith, S. W., Chilson, P., Schmale, D. G., Intrieri, J., Pinto, James, Elston, J., Brus, D., Kemppinen, O., Clark, A., Lawrence, D., Bailey, S. C. C., Sama, M. P., Frazier, A., Crick, C., Natalie, V., Pillar-Little, E., Klein, P., Waugh, S., Lundquist, J. K., Barbieri, L., Kral, S. T., Jensen, Anders A., Dixon, C., Borenstein, S., Hesselius, D., Human, K., Hall, P., Argrow, B., Thornberry, T., Wright, R., Kelly, J. T.. (2020). Development of community, capabilities, and understanding through unmanned aircraft-based atmospheric research: The LAPSE-RATE campaign. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7g73j0n. Accessed 01 August 2025.

Harvest Source