Listen to the music of the drones to forecast weather

[Nipuna]

Under the weather (Image: Johner/Plainpicture)

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THERE'S a buzz in the air. A system that listens to the sound of a drone's propellers and deduces atmospheric conditions could one day be used for measuring air pollution, and even providing weather updates.

Developed by Anthony Finn and Kevin Rogers at the University of South Australia in Adelaide, the system uses an array of ground-based microphones to listen for the distinctive sound created by the propellers of a small uncrewed aircraft. Columns of air between the drone and the microphones distort the sound depending on the air temperature and how fast the air is moving. If the system knows the sound made at the source, it can analyse the distortions to work out the properties of the air.

A test in St Leonards, Victoria, used five microphones and one drone to measure air temperature and wind speed up to 500 metres above ground, finding a temperature gradient that went from 21 °C at ground level to 18 °C at 500 metres.

Finn says his approach could lead to mobile weather stations that can monitor large volumes of atmosphere and can move to follow weather patterns. The work will be presented at the Acoustics conference in Victor Harbor, South Australia, in November.

This article appeared in print under the headline "Want to know the weather? Listen to a drone"