Nephelae Wiki¶

Atmospheric models still suffer from a gap between ground-based and satellite measurements. As a consequence, the impacts of clouds on our climate remain one of the largest uncertainties in numerical weather prediction (NWP) and in understanding climate change. The main goal of the Nephelae project is to fill that gap by acquiring micro-physical atmospheric measures inside clouds by the means of a fleet of UAVs simultaneously flying inside a target cloud (more details here)

Actors¶

• ENAC : Conception, manufacture and operation of the UAV fleet. The UAVs were specifically designed for the Nephelae project. UAV operations and flight simulations are based on ENAC's Paparazzi framework.

• Meteo-France : Expertise on atmospheric phenomenons and use of UAVs for atmospheric measurements (more details here). Also provides sensor hardware to be embedded inside the UAVs.

• LAAS : Provides a real-time cloud-mapping system with a graphical user interface. Aims to provide a feedback to fleet operators on current state of the fleet and the mapped cloud. The goal is to be able to adapt the UAV flight plan in order to maximize data acquisition around a target cloud (more details here).

This wiki¶

This wiki describes the LAAS contribution to the Nephelae project, i.e. the mapping system, the graphical interface and the various APi's used to link with the Paparazzi framework and the MesoNH atmospheric simulations.

A good place to start reading is here.

Useful links¶

System overview

LAAS-Nephelae software installation