NOAA Furthers its Mission in Alaska with Uncrewed Aerial Systems Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Alaska is well known for its harsh weather, environmental risks, rapidly changing climate, and difficult conditions for collecting both routine and urgent information for decision making. Through support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), our team had the opportunity to test small uncrewed aerial systems (UAS) for collecting imagery and providing information that would help NOAA fulfill its mission in Alaska. Our test applications included mapping flood inundation, inspection of meteorological towers and facilities, storm damage surveys, and digital storytelling about weather, water, and climate. Our experience suggests that mapping applications require significantly more resources in terms of staff training, deployment time, software/hardware costs, and data management than missions where oblique videography and still images are the end product, but that both are quite valuable for meeting the agency’s goals for products and services. While these small UAS applications have become common in other sectors and by academic partners, this is the first time they have been integrated into NOAA’s own internal operations by National Weather Service employees, which required the agency to develop a series of new policies and procedures to mitigate risks. One result is being able to provide unprecedented and impactful imagery of ice jam flooding in Alaska Native villages to regional and national news outlets.