Many drone manufacturers specify safe operating limits or warnings according to weather parameters in their manuals (e.g., “Do not use the aircraft in severe weather conditions including wind speeds exceeding 10 m/s, snow, rain, and fog” 16). Risk-based frameworks and high-resolution datasets are imperative for assessing safe operations locally, but the extent to which different drone types are limited by weather in different parts of the world remains unknown. Their results demonstrate that local weather, relative to specific drone tolerances, can substantially impact drone operations and limit flights to between 53.9 and 95.8% of the year 14. 14 compared historical weather data and four drone platforms to determine the percentage of the year when drone operations were possible in two different cities. Roseman and Argrow 11 created a risk-based framework to assess safe operations based on weather forecast, population density, structure density, and drone specifications. ![]() Researchers have documented the current weather resources and tools available to assess weather-related risks for local drone operations 11, 13, 14, 15. 10)-but understanding where, when, and how adverse and severe weather conditions arise and impact drone operations is complicated. There are situations when most drones should not and cannot fly (i.e., ‘severe’ weather hazards as categorized by Ranquist et al. Few published standards or specifications exist specifically targeting weather effects on drone flight performance and safety 12.Īir temperature, wind speed, precipitation, and other atmospheric phenomena have been shown to adversely affect drone endurance, control, aerodynamics, airframe integrity, line-of-sight visibility, airspace monitoring, and sensors for navigation and collision avoidance 10, 11. In an exercise to outline the status of drone technical and performance standards, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) identified weather robustness as an important gap and high priority 12. The drone industry lags behind the aerospace industry in the development and implementation of standards for weather-related testing and tolerances 11. ![]() Weather is an important and poorly resolved factor that may affect ambitions to expand drone operations 10. However, the transition towards widespread and on-demand drone applications and services requires consideration of a wide variety of factors 9. Growth in drone utilization has been accompanied by rapidly evolving legislation and initiatives to modernize airspace for the safe integration of drones 7, 8. As existing applications mature, new uses are being tested that may transform commercial sectors, with drones supplanting conventional methods and adding new services 3, 6. Small ( 1.7 million drones registered with the United States Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), 30% of which were registered for commercial applications 5. An inverse analysis for major population centres shows the largest flyability gains for common drones can be achieved by increasing maximum wind speed and precipitation thresholds from 10 to 15 m/s and 0–1 mm/h, respectively. ![]() While these estimates do not consider all weather conditions, results suggest that improvements to weather resistance can increase flyability. Weather-resistant drones have higher flyability (20.4 and 12.3 h/day, respectively). Median global flyability for common drones is low: 5.7 h/day or 2.0 h/day if restricted to daylight hours. We show that global flyability is highest in warm and dry continental regions and lowest over oceans and at high latitudes. We explore weather-limited drone flyability (the proportion of time drones can fly safely) by comparing historical wind speed, temperature, and precipitation data to manufacturer-reported thresholds of common commercial and weather-resistant drones with a computer simulation. The magnitude and global variability of weather impact is poorly understood. However, drones cannot fly in all weather, which impacts their reliability for time-sensitive operations. Small aerial drones are used in a growing number of commercial applications.
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