Acoustic Atmospheric Tomography using Multiple Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

This paper presents a method for tomographically reconstructing atmospheric temperature profiles and wind velocity fields based on acoustic travel time measurements between two or more Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs). The technique offers mobility and the capacity to monitor hazardous atmospheric environments, otherwise not justifiable on the basis of cost or risk. Simulations, in which the parametric fields of the atmosphere are modelled as a weighted sum of Radial Basis Functions, demonstrate the technique's potential performance envelope. The approach also allows local meteorological measurements made at the UAVs to supplement any time delay observations. This increases the accuracy of the technique, which has potential for practical applications in boundary layer meteorology, the theory of atmospheric turbulence, and wave propagation through a turbulent atmosphere.