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2023: Expanding Weather Data Coverage With Optimization-based Balloon Navigation
Improving atmospheric data collection addresses both mitigation and prevention aspects of climate change. Weather balloons are an important sensing tool, but their coverage is traditionally determined by launch location and wind patterns. This project will develop planning and control algorithms for advanced weather balloon navigation, expanding coverage to less-studied regions. The algorithms developed will contend with major challenges like uncertain wind forecasts and limited actuation budgets. This project will also serve to create a partnership between researchers at Cornell and WindBorne Systems, an advanced weather balloon start-up, where research results will have direct impact.
Investigator: Sarah Dean, Computer Science