Title: Lesson 5: Meteorology
Course: Image acquisition using drones > Section: Course Content

This lesson teaches the evaluation of the actual and forecast conditions, including the meteorological variables, that are to be consider to decide the moments and adequacy of flight operations.

Objectives:

The main objective is to have access to actual and forecast meteorological information, understand the climatic picture and translate it in terms of possible constraints for the safety of the flight mission.

Entrance requirements:

Followed the previous lesson of this course and conducted the exercises

Notions to be grasped:

At the end of this lesson the participant should…

- understand the kind of cloud and wind conditions influencing the execution of a mission;
- understand a METAR code (basics)
- understand a TAF code (basics)
- access to useful sites to describe the synoptic status of the weather in relation to a flight operation with drones

Learning activities:

- Study the PPT presentation “EENSAT_Drone_Operation_05_Meteorology.pptx”.
- Follow the videos in the link.
- Prepare exercises as described under “Tasks”

Tasks:

Unzip the file “EENSAT_Drone_Operation_05_Meteorology.zip”.

1. Go through the PPT and study the lesson.
2. Ask questions you did not understand but only after searching for explanatory material.
3. As practical, go to the manual of the drone and investigate in the internet the limits were the particular drone can operate in terms of wind, altitude and temperature. Visit a meteorological site and evaluate the seasonal conditions (monthly averages) of those meteorological variables affecting flight. Include cloudiness standards to decide upon periods that are mostly cloudy, mostly clear and mixed.

Planned time frame for this lesson:

6 hours