This paper presents the results of the design and field deployment of multiple autonomous fixed‐wing unmanned aircraft into supercell thunderstorms. As part of a field campaign in Spring 2019, up to three fixed‐wing unmanned aircraft were deployed simultaneously into different regions of supercell thunderstorms, To learn more about the atmospheric conditions that lead to the formation of tornadoes. Successful field deployment is attributed to (a) a nomadic concept of operations that allows the unmanned aircraft system team and science team to work seamlessly together while satisfying all aviation regulations and (b) the ruggedized RAAVEN unmanned aircraft system with modular features that favor rapid, ease‐of‐use over the brute strength of previous designs. The concept of operations and the unmanned aircraft system are described along with results from a 4 day window where four storms were sampled: two of these storms were tornadic (formed tornadoes before, during, or after being sampled) and two were not. These results validate the feasibility of nomadic operation of multiple unmanned aircraft simultaneously in severe weather conditions. Further, the successful field deployments demonstrate the importance of the modular unmanned aircraft design.

中文翻译：

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多个自主固定翼无人飞机对旋风超细胞的现场观察

本文介绍了将多种自主固定翼无人飞机设计成超级单元雷暴的设计和现场部署的结果。作为2019年春季实地战役的一部分，最多将三架固定翼无人飞机同时部署到超级单体雷暴的不同区域，以了解导致龙卷风形成的大气条件的更多信息。成功的野外部署归因于（a）游牧作战概念，它允许无人飞机系统团队和科学团队在满足所有航空法规的情况下无缝协作，并且（b）坚固耐用的RAAVEN无人飞机系统具有模块化特性，有助于快速，易于使用，优于以前的设计。描述了操作的概念和无人驾驶飞机系统，以及从一个为期4天的窗口中对四个风暴进行了采样的结果：其中两个风暴是龙卷风（在采样之前，期间或之后形成了龙卷风），而没有两个。这些结果证明了在恶劣天气条件下同时进行多架无人机游牧活动的可行性。此外，成功的现场部署证明了模块化无人飞机设计的重要性。