LCSR Seminar – Thomas Bewley: Development and coordination of practical balloon swarms for persistent in situ real-time measurement of hurricane development
This talk proposes a low-cost balloon observation system for sustained (week-long), broadly distributed, in-situ observation of hurricane development. The high-quality, high-density (in both space and time) measurements to be made available by such a system should be instrumental in significantly improving our ability to forecast such extreme and dangerous atmospheric events. Scientific challenges in this over-arching problem, which is of acute societal relevance, include:
Bio
Thomas R Bewley (BS/MS, Caltech, 1989; diploma, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, 1990; PhD, Stanford, 1998) directs the UCSD Flow Control and Coordinated Robotics Labs, which collaborate closely on interdisciplinary projects. The Flow Control Lab investigates a range of questions ranging from theoretical to applied, including the development of advanced analysis tools and numerical methods to better understand, optimize, estimate, forecast, and control fluid systems. The Coordinated Robotics Lab investigates the mobility and coordination of small multi-modal robotic vehicles, leveraging dynamic models and feedback control, with prototypes built using cellphone-grade electronics, custom PCBs, and 3D printing; the team has also worked with a number of commercial partners to design and bring successful consumer and educational-focused robotics products to market.