RADIO IQ | By Nick Gilmore
PublishedJune 13, 2024 at 4:12 PM EDT
Drones have a variety of purposes – from taking gorgeous photos and videos above our heads to even food delivery.
Another purpose for drones – or uncrewed aircraft systems – is assessing damage in the wake of tornadoes and hurricanes.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – or NOAA – has partnered with Verizon on a new research project.
Tim Oram, the Meteorological Services Branch Chief at the National Weather Service Southern Region headquarters in Texas, says that agency already has some aerial imagery at its disposal. But that can be expensive and staff at local National Weather Service offices have to go through a lot of training for drone flights – a tough ask when they’ve got many other duties.
“And so, we wanted to look at some ways where we could take advantage of people like Verizon, who are already out there, who have their own interests in the damage from storms – in this case for their company’s recovery and response," he says. "So, we were wondering is it feasible that we could both meet our needs through the sharing of the imagery – can we take that and deliver that to our offices to do the same thing but without taxing our offices and take advantage of the expertise, capabilities and skills of these outside companies?”
Many local offices of the National Weather Service – a subsidiary of NOAA – send personnel out after a tornado has passed to determine how strong it was on the Enhanced-Fujita scale and to document its particular path. That process is often time consuming and takes place in very rural or hard-to-reach areas.
That’s where Verizon, with its drones, can be helpful – according to Chris Sanders with Frontline – the company’s arm for first responders and emergency personnel.
“After a severe weather event, we will go out, we will have a discussion with the National Weather Service, [the] National Severe Storms Laboratory and NOAA personnel to determine what areas they want to see, and then go out and map those areas for them using different platforms, because the idea is to get multiple data sets," Sanders says. "They need to see different kinds of data, different resolutions so that through this [partnership], we can help them determine what data is the best data. That way, in the future, when they look to either purchase data or gather it, they'll have a specification for what kind of data they want to gather.”
Verizon
The system has already been used, too. Oram says drones were used in early May to provide some imagery of tornado damage to the Florida State campus in Tallahassee.
He adds that the data will have a number of uses.
“Our [purpose with this] is to identify what kind of storm was it. We can determine whether it was straight line, thunderstorm winds or whether it was tornadic in many cases," explains Oram. "Similarly, the National Severe Storms Laboratory [in Norman, Oklahoma is] interested in getting very detailed, high-resolution imagery so that they can improve their understanding of how different topography – for example – affects tornadoes and [their development.] And so, we’re trying to capture both short-term damage information for our offices that they then provide to their local emergency managers and the counties and parishes – as well as gathering high-level scientific data.”
The hope is that scientific information could increase lead times for warnings ahead of tornadoes.
Sanders believes the concept could be expanded if successful. He adds his team is all about solving problems for first responders and emergency personnel in the field, so this project falls in line with that goal.
"The first data that most agencies get after something happens is satellite data typically. The resolution on satellite data is not always... fantastic. We can get imagery using our platforms down to half-an-inch per pixel, which is extremely high resolution," he says. "Helping provide that data to them after a crisis faster than they can get that satellite imagery helps them make better logistical decisions in the moment. This will help them focus those assets where they are much more needed and hopefully in the future save even more lives than those teams are already saving."
The three-year partnership specifically applies to the National Severe Storms Laboratory and the National Weather Service’s Southern Region – which includes the far southwestern tip of Virginia.
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