TU Braunschweig’s meteorological flight system tested on the Baltic Sea Weather balloon alternative launched with catapult in Schleswig-Holstein

During flight tests in May 2021, the LUCA unmanned aerial system, equipped with meteorological measurement technology, reached an altitude of 4.8 kilometres. LUCA stands for “Lightweight Unmanned High Ceiling Aerial system” and is being developed by Technische Universität Braunschweig together with partners in the AEROMET_UAV project. It will provide the basis for collecting additional meteorological data for weather models anywhere in the world. The research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) as part of the mFUND programme.

In Germany, flights at such altitudes are normally only possible in restricted military areas. For the flight test, LUCA took off from the German Bundeswehr’s Todendorf/Putlos training area in Schleswig-Holstein. “We are delighted that we have come a big step closer to our goal of flying to the Neumayer Station in Antarctica,” says Konrad Bärfuss, who developed the flight system at Technische Universität Braunschweig.

LUCA was developed as part of the BMVI project AEROMET_UAV, short for “Aufwertung und Erweiterung meteorologischer Datenerfassung durch Meteorologisches UAV“ (Enhancement and extension of meteorological data acquisition by meteorological UAV), under the project management of Dr. Astrid Lampert. Partners of TU Braunschweig are the company Exabotix GmbH, the Alfred Wegener Institute, the Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and the German Weather Service. The LUCA flight system was developed at the Institute of Flight Guidance (IFF) at TU Braunschweig under the direction of Professor Peter Hecker and built in close cooperation with the Viennese company “more than scale composite“.

A sustainable alternative to weather balloons

Every day, weather probes are launched on balloons around the world to provide information on pressure, temperature, humidity and wind for weather forecasts. These weather balloons cannot be steered, but fly with the wind. Their remains are difficult to recover and are often left in the environment. In the AEROMET_UAV project, TU Braunschweig is building an alternative: an unmanned flight system that is robust, controllable and easy to operate. The system should be able to cope with the difficult weather conditions in Antarctica and will be tested at Neumayer Station.

Project data:

The German Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) is funding the project for three years. The total funding amounts to 716,000 euros. The project started on 1 August 2018.

About the mFUND of the BMVI:

As part of the mFUND research initiative, the BMVI has been funding research and development projects on data-based digital applications for Mobility 4.0 since 2016. In addition to financial support, the mFUND promotes networking between stakeholders from politics, business and research, and access to the mCLOUD data portal with various event formats. Further information is available at www.mfund.de.