Conference was 12-15 December, Santa Fe, New Mexico
The NOAA UAS Program participated in the UAS TAAC (Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technical Analysis and Applications Center) conference to discuss critical issues regarding UAS in a productive, value-added environment. TAAC 2016 included briefings from several federal agencies (DoD, NASA, DHS, DOE, DOI), aviation user groups such as AOPA, AIA, as well as universities, and private industry. This year’s TAAC included briefings from the FAA’s test sites, Center of Excellence and Path Finders.
NOAA UAS Program’s Justyna Nicinska, John “JC” Coffey, Phil Kenul shared the NOAA UAS Program’s strategic vision and execution from requirements capture to “transition to operations” with manned and unmanned aircraft counter-parts. NOAA’s recent UAS successes focusing on hazardous weather, maritime and Polar surveys included:
- SHOUT’s use of Global Hawk for Hurricane Research & Satellite Gap Mitigation.
- Puma UAS deploys onboard from US Coast Guard Cutter’s (Icebreaker) Healy and Polar Star for marine monitoring, search & rescue and oil spill detection with ONR and AeroVironment.
- Development of partnership with UAF, US Navy, USCG, Conoco Philips for ScanEagle flights in the Arctic.
- NWS’ River Forecasting Center Rapid Response with UAS for Yukon River Watch supporting the NWS Rapid Response CONOPS.
- SBIR Phase III “Transition to Operation” of Aurora Flight Science’s Centaur for Grav-D survey.
- UAS use for satellite calibration and validation.
- Other platform coordination including Aerosonde and Flexrotor.
- Counter UAS was discussed at the classified session with JC Coffey.