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UAVs Will Study Californian Smog

Posted by timothy on from the with-their-little-UN-logos dept.

Roland Piquepaille writes "The California Energy Commission is funding a research effort named CAPPS, short for California AUAV Air Pollution Profiling Study. CAPPS will use autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles (AUAVs) to gather meteorological data as the aircraft fly through clouds over Southern California. The goal is to study smog and its consequences as well as better understand the sources of air pollution. The first flights started in April 2008 and data collection will continue until January 2009. But read more for additional references and photos of these autonomous unmanned aircraft."

6 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And why? by evanbd · · Score: 5, Informative

    They're cheaper to operate, they can stay aloft longer, and they pollute less. What's not to like?

  2. Re:Smog is way down, why is this needed? by CorSci81 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You must not live in LA. Yes, most days are ok here (at least a vast improvement over the 70s), but there are still days you can see a visible brown haze. Improvements have been made but the problem is definitely not "solved".

  3. Re:Heisenberg -- UAV create smog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    these uavs are using a 2-stroke reciprocating gasoline engine

    http://www.acrtucson.com/UAV/manta/index.htm

  4. Re:And why? by UncleTogie · · Score: 2, Informative

    With the pilot sitting on the ground, and possibly flying multiple AV's at once, how likely are they to be using the same level of awareness of the airspace around the vehicle?

    As these are restricted to solely military airspace, I'm not as worried...

    FTA:

    Because of Federal Aviation Administration regulations that prohibit unmanned aircraft from flying in public airspace, the flight paths will be limited to military airspace, which is exempted from FAA rules.

    What I'm curious about is how those police departments that recently bought UAVs can legally use them in public airspace....

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  5. Re:And why? by FreeBSD+evangelist · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'll grant they can stay aloft longer. But I question the "cheaper to operate" if you figure totally amortized costs for the plane, the maintenance, the bunker for the pilot, the satellite, etc.

    And a plane with a pilot in it has better awareness of other planes, and can fly outside of military airspace.

  6. California smog can make your lungs bleed by MisterSquid · · Score: 2, Informative

    Los Angeles has it good compared to the entire San Joaquin Valley, Fresno in particular.

    Walking out of the house at 5:30 in the morning (exercise to beat the heat), one notices that the air smells like someone just lit a firecracker. During the day, the haze is orange-brown and often so dense there is no visibility after half a mile.

    The air is so bad, one asthmatic friend of mine who teaches at Fresno State had to move to Santa Cruz. He now commutes twice a week (2.5 hours one way). After his bike rides he'd come home and start hacking blood, the air was that bad.

    I'm glad I was only visiting, but Fresno, Los Banos, and all of the infernal SJV has it bad.

    Smog is a serious problem. (Not all of it is caused by internal combustion engines. A lot of it also comes from crop dusting the thousands of acres of fertile California Valley soil.)

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