UAS Damage Survey Project

My Role

• Deployed multiple times across the US to support imaging and collecting measurements over tornado paths.
• Work includes traditional damage surveys, NWS collaboration, public interaction, and implementation of state-of-the-art platforms.
• Serve as the NOAA Mission Commander and platform pilot

UAS Damage Survey

Damage assessments provide insight into the occurrence, intensity, and distribution of tornadoes and other severe weather phenomenon. Current ground survey and satellite assessments, however, are restricted by available resources (e.g., personnel, time, and cost), accessibility, technological limitations, and damage indicators used to infer storm intensity. Compared to ground-level photos, UAS imagery reveals a broader extent of damage, including areas that are difficult to access on foot. Its broader overhead view also better captures spatial variations in damage that reflect gradients in tornado and storm wind intensity—details that are difficult to capture with ground-based point indicators.

Scientists at NSSL and CIWRO utilize uncrewed aerial systems (UASs) to document storm damage. These platforms collect high-resolution video, imagery, and elevation data- including multi-spectral imagery at resolutions as fine as 2.5 cm – allowing us to observe how storms affect and are influenced by the land surface. These high-resolution datasets can be used to validate radar observations and numerical simulations, ultimately improving our understanding of surface interactions with storms. This can be done by characterizing debris deposition, mapping damage indicators relative to storm attributes, and comparing aerial imagery to ground surveys.