AGS-CIF: Mobile Uncrewed Systems for Atmospheric Science (MUSAS)

The Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (AGS) operates the Community Instruments and Facilities (CIF) program to enhance the scientific community’s access to instrumentation that is otherwise too costly or complicated to operate for most institutions. This Community Instruments and Facilities (CIF) award is for the support and operation of Mobile Uncrewed Systems for Atmospheric Science (MUSAS) at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The project is supported as a community facility within the Facilities for Atmospheric Research & Education (FARE) program in AGS. NSF funding for this award will enable the University of Colorado Boulder to make available three different Small uncrewed aircraft systems (sUAS) platforms and associated instrumentation for observational research in the lower atmosphere. The CIF also includes surface vehicles supporting the uncrewed aircraft systems. The MUSAS project will provide access to airspace for conducting research using the sUAS platforms through Certificates of Authorization (COAs) granted by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This NSF CIF award will provide partial baseline support for maintenance and operations support to make the MUSAS systems available to a diverse research and education community. sUAS platforms and associated ground vehicles offer opportunities to capture high quality, high resolution in-situ measurements of atmospheric processes in environments that may otherwise be too dangerous, monotonous, or challenging to sample. As such, MUSAS will be able to support a wide array of atmospheric research, including boundary layer processes, coastal circulations, aerosol processes, turbulence and turbulent fluxes, surface-atmosphere exchange, high-latitude environments, and severe weather. This award will enhance the ability of the broader scientific community to request and use the sUAS platforms and associated instrumentation for observational research in the lower atmosphere through the Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences facility request process. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.