与有人飞机的台风探测不同,无人飞机(也称无人机)因其相对低的成本且无人员伤亡风险等优势,自1997年一款名为"气象侦察兵(Aerosonde)"投入台风探测试验以来,受到国际社会的广泛关注。随着无人机技术的迅猛发展,无人机的飞行高度、有效荷载和续航能力等性能不断提高,更多的台风特种观测仪器被搭载,特别是2010年NASA使用高空长航时无人机"全球鹰(Global Hawk)"对大西洋5个飓风的飞行探测取得成功后,基于无人机平台建立高空下投探空和近地/水面飞行观测相结合的台风精细结构探测体系渐成趋势。目前我国尚未建立飞机探测台风的业务,严重制约了我国台风定位定强和台风数值预报精度的进一步提高。鉴于此,简要概述了境内外无人机在台风探测中的实践和发展趋势,旨在推进我国无人机探测台风的实践及其业务化体系的建设。
Since the practice by using the "aerosonde"in mornitoring typhoon in 1997,the unmanned aerial vehicles( UAVs) have attracted widespread attention because of their riskfree casualty and relatively low cost advantages. With the rapid development of UAVs technology,and the continued improvement of payload and endurance capacities,more and more special observational instruments have been mounted on the UAVs. Particulary,since the"Global Hawk"was successfully used in the hurricane mornitoring experiment in 2010,the integrated and collaborative aircraft observations based on UAVs,including drop sounding and near-surface flying,have become the trend. This paper briefly outlined the development of UAVs and their application to the detection of tropical cyclone,including the practice and trends. The aimes were to promote the practice of using the UAVs in tropical cyclone observation,and to improve its operational detection system development.