the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Wind Estimation based on Flight Dynamics of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and Its Environmental Application
Abstract. Wind speed and direction are crucial for environmental monitoring and meteorological research, yet current measurement techniques face challenges in obtaining high spatiotemporal-resolution wind data while maintaining operational flexibility and cost-effectiveness. This study presents a wind estimation method based on attitude changes of an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) through controlled wind wall experiments. The estimated wind parameters were compared with measurements from an onboard wind sensor. Results from meteorological tower validations and field campaigns demonstrate that both the attitude-based and sensor-based methods achieved good agreement with reference measurements during UAV hovering. However, sensor measurements showed significant errors at high vertical flight velocities, primarily due to increased UAV downwash, while the attitude-based method maintained accuracy during flights. Building on UAV attitude changes, a machine learning algorithm was further developed to estimate wind parameters with high accuracy, offering a practical solution for future field deployments. Successful application in coastal observations showcased that wind estimation based on UAV attitude dynamics provided important spatiotemporal wind data sets that could be used to investigate the fate and dispersion of air pollutants. This work presents a reliable, sensor-free algorithm that enables low-cost, high-resolution wind measurements across diverse operational scenarios. This advancement creates new opportunities at the intersection of environmental science and emerging low-altitude economy applications, which hold promise for urban air mobility safety assessment and microscale meteorology-enhanced environmental monitoring.
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Status: open (until 21 Nov 2025)
- RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4752', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Oct 2025 reply
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RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2025-4752', Anonymous Referee #2, 17 Oct 2025
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This study focuses on the application of UAV attitude dynamics in wind speed and direction estimation. Through a complete research chain—comprising "wind tunnel calibration, meteorological tower validation, and coastal field application"—the study presents a wind measurement solution that is "sensor-independent, low-cost, and offers high spatiotemporal resolution." This approach effectively addresses the conflicts traditionally seen in wind measurement technologies, particularly in vertical wind measurement, flexible deployment, and cost control. The study is well-designed, with substantial data support, and the results are both scientifically innovative and valuable for engineering applications. The research holds significant reference value for the interdisciplinary fields of low-altitude economy and environmental science. However, there is still considerable room for optimization in terms of the method's generalizability, experimental details, depth of data analysis, and refinement of application scenarios. The technical character of the manuscript makes it suitable to be submitted as a Technical Note rather than a research article in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.