Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Atmospheric Research

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit manuscripts to a MDPI Drones Special Issue on “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Atmospheric Research”.

The ever-expanding range of drone applications observed in recent years is also taking place in the field of atmospheric research. The increasing availability and reliability of these platforms opens new opportunities in the study of various processes occurring in the planetary boundary layer and at the interface between the Earth's surface and atmosphere. These studies allow us to fill the gap between surface measurements and methods, enabling the observation of atmospheric profiles at higher altitudes (aircraft, LIDAR, satellite observations). Additionally, the acquisition of surface images from relatively low altitudes allows us to drastically increase the resolution of these images and develop downscaling methods for satellite products. On the other hand, the availability of a variety of low-cost sensors that allow the measurement of trace gas or pollutant concentrations opens opportunities for the development of methods to identify the emission sources of these components and estimate their emission rates.

Within this context, we invite manuscripts for this Special Issue on “Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Atmospheric Research”. Papers are welcome in areas directly related to these topics, both conceptual and applied in nature, including (but not limited to) the following:

• Profiling of the planetary boundary layer;
• Urban meteorology;
• Influence of topography and land use on boundary layer dynamics;
• High-resolution atmospheric modelling;
• Identification of GHG or pollutant surface emissions;
• Estimation of GHG or pollutant emission rates;
• Application of machine-learning algorithms to interpret airborne datasets;
• Development of down-scaling algorithms based on UAV-collected datasets;
• New developments in the area of drone-based sensors and measurement systems;
• Investigation of in-cloud processes;
• Estimation of surface energy balance components using drone data.

Dr. Miroslaw Zimnoch
Dr. Paweł Ćwiąkała
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Drones is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.