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Comment by cryptoz | Hacker News Reader

Okay, time to build drones full of atmosphere sensors! The weather forecast is about to get a lot better....this is excellent news for crowdsourcing remote data about the atmosphere. I've been pulling pressure measurements from smartphones for a while, but a core problem is that a lot of weather develops over areas of low smartphone density.

Sending out drone fleets will be a most excellent solution; they're reusable, so you don't have to make 200M of them. They're connected and already carry many required sensors. They're coming down in price and at the start of a thriving commercial ecosystem. Can't wait to start building!

Edit: I wrote about this idea last year: http://www.jacobsheehy.com/2013/03/living-in-the-future-star...

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Unless you're collecting your data under 400 feet, this ruling isn't going to enable such a system. Only "model aircraft" operation is involved.

Actually I'm exclusively interested in data under 400 feet! Surface-level pressure observations are my target; recent research suggests that a dense network of atmospheric pressure observations (taken on the surface) will produce a significantly higher accuracy forecast. Smartphones work nicely for this except for their lack of even geographical distribution.

That may be useful then. I don't think there's any specific rule against a fully-autonomous system, though it would certainly raise some eyebrows. If you do it with enough safeguards and in a safe area, you might get away with it.

If I recall correctly, you still technically need "line of sight" to the drone.

Somewhere I think I saw something about requiring the ability to take manual control too, which would require line of sight.

Maybe I'm thinking of AMA requirements though... (think model airplanes, not doctors - although, doctors also require line of sight)

I thought I saw those too, but haven't been able to find them in the FAA notices for model aircraft. There is such a clause in the 2012 for small unmanned aircraft (sUAS) use by a "government public safety agency".

I would presume the FAA will try to apply such a rule to civil use after this ruling.

Edit: Federal Register Notice 14 CFR Part 91 says they "expect line of sight" for model aircraft. It does not seem to be required--and at least one administrative judge thinks that such a notice does not carry much weight.

Yeah, line-of-sight/manual takeover might just be a requirement for the AMA's insurance coverage.

Get in touch . I'm working on making a low cost sensor box from Raspberry Pi's for wide dissemination; atmospheric/temp sensors, precision GPS receiver, software defined radio for grabbing AIS and ADS-B data, etc, and then open sourcing all of the collected data sets and the live streams.

I would love to integrate with Cumulonimbus! My email address is in my profile.

Cheaper than a cubesensor? Where can I subscribe?

Different market per se. Not cheaper; its made to help contribute to a sensor fabric, less about your home environment.

Are you sure that's the case? The 400 feet rule comes from FAA Advisory Circular 91-57 (in 1981), which is essentially a public memo with ambiguous (weak at best) legal status.

AC 91-57 (pdf): http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAdvisor...

Out of curiosity, how do you power them? I'm assuming solar isn't enough. Do they have to continually come down to re-charge?

Well, I do have a vision where solar power is actually enough, but that's certainly not possible today. This might work in 3-4 years, depending on what happens in battery tech and solar efficiency. Otherwise, I think you might have to build a network similar to Matternet [1] / Tesla Supercharger; making a ground-based charging infrastructure investment might be necessary to get started, even if that tech isn't necessary in 10 years.

[1] Matternet is awesome. http://matternet.us/

Have you considered buying solar-powered drones from Titan Aerospace before Facebook snatches them up? Probably a bit pricey, but they are marketed as atmospheric satellites.

Titan Aerospace's offerings are tailored for high altitude use - this gentleman is looking for drones flying under 400 feet. Different application.

I know I am way over simplifying this but I always thought integrating something similar to the Roomba's ability to find "home," land, recharge and resume would be a nice solution.

Better yet, have it find an overhead power line ;)

Oh sure, the FAA wouldn't mind that at all. ;)

Besides, the various utility companies would surely not be pleased by the theft of energy.

Wouldn't balloons be better for atmospheric pressure sensors?

Perhaps but I don't think so. I want surface-level observations, or as close to the surface as possible. Also, the drones will be most useful if they can fine-tune their route and quickly go to a specific place to join a swarm of others measuring forming stormclouds.

I think you'll have to be clever to get good data, some of these things are pretty sensitive (BMP085, SCP1000, etc). What will you do, cut the power and stall the craft to take the measurements? Sounds like fun.

http://www.bosch-sensortec.com/en/homepage/products_3/enviro...

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