Courtesy of NASA
Related links:
What Do Coffee and Lightning Have in Common?
News story originally written on May 18, 2001
Do they both give you a jolt? Well, that's not exactly what we had in mind! Coffee and lightning are the two subjects that will be investigated by NASA's unmanned aerial vehicles or UAV's during the next few years!NASA has a whole fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles. They range in size from a vehicle that could be held in your hand to runway-operated giants. Their weights range from just a few pounds to 2,000 pounds! They are capable of flying at a variety of altitudes and can carry a variety of payload. What they all don't carry is humans, i.e., they are all piloted from the ground.
One of these UAV's, the Pathfinder-Plus, is being used to survey coffee plantations in Hawaii. From these aerial surveys, the growers will know, down to the day, the best time for harvesting the coffee beans, bringing the best flavor to consumers. Coffee is the leading commodity traded in the agricultural world market. Sound science brought to coffee growers by the UAV surveys will aid the U.S. in remaining competitive in this multi-billion dollar industry. Using a UAV in this survey will also provide capability for long-duration, high-altitude surveys that human pilots just wouldn't be able to endure.
Another UAV called Altus will explore how lightning forms and dissipates during thunderstorms. Researchers will chase down thunderstorms in Florida, sending the Altus above and around the storm, while remote pilots stay safely on the ground. NASA hopes that data collected in this study will increase understanding of lightning and storms, while providing federal, state and local governments new disaster-management information for use in the areas of severe storms, floods and wild fires caused by lightning.
