Drones are becoming an increasingly useful tool for tracking and forecasting severe weather conditions. A University of Nebraska-Lincoln researcher will discuss the predictability of drones during the Nebraska Spring Lecture on April 2.
Adam Houston, professor of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, will present a lecture entitled: “Can Drones Improve Weather Forecasts?” 3:30pm at Nebraska Union's Swanson Hall. This will be the first live, in-person lecture in Nebraska since 2019.
Over the past two decades, U.S. hurricanes have been responsible for more than 1,600 deaths, more than 23,000 injuries and about $31 billion in damage, Houston said. No other hazard associated with thunderstorms affects humans so severely.
Although identifying large-scale weather conditions that can lead to tornado formation has improved, Houston said false alarms in tornado warnings are still a problem — which could lead people to ignore future warnings.
The use of computer models to guide forecasts has almost advanced to the point of providing meteorologists with direct guidance to issue warnings for severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, Houston said. This process, referred to as warning forecasting, increases the lead time of warnings.
Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), or drones, show promise for further improving warning forecasting and reducing false alarms, Houston said. But drone technology has been controversial in some circles.
Houston has been involved in research into UAS technology for weather forecasting. UNL led the most ambitious drone investigation of severe storms and tornadoes ever conducted. The Targeted Surveillance by Radar and UAV Supercell (TORUS) study deployed a wide array of sophisticated instruments in the Great Plains during the 2019, 2022, and 2023 storm seasons. This multi-institutional effort was funded by the National Science Foundation and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A question and answer session will follow Houston's lecture. The event is open to the public, and registration is not required to attend.
The Nebraska Lectures are offered twice annually and feature top-level presentations by distinguished Husker faculty who address topics of broad interest in an engaging and accessible format. All talks are free and open to the public. The talks are broadcast online. Regular updates, as well as archived videos from each lecture, are available here.
The Nebraska Lectures: Chancellor's Distinguished Speaker Series is sponsored by the Research Council, the Office of the Chancellor, the Office of Research and Economic Development, and the Osher Institute for Lifelong Learning.
