First Rocketsonde Launched from an Unmanned Semi-submersible Vehicle

Abstract

The unmanned semi-submersible vehicle (USSV) developed by the unmanned surface vehicle team of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics is an unmanned, rugged, and high-endurance autonomous navigation vessel designed for the collection of long-term, continuous and real-time marine meteorological measurements, including atmospheric sounding in the lower troposphere. A series of river and sea trials were conducted from May 2016 to November 2017, and the first rocketsonde was launched from the USSV. Real-time meteorological parameters in the marine atmospheric boundary layer (MABL) were obtained, including sea surface temperature, and vertical profiles of the pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind speed, and wind direction. These data are extremely useful and important for research on air–sea interactions, sea surface heat and latent heat flux estimations, MABL modeling, and marine satellite product validation.