| CPC G01W 1/08 (2013.01) | 14 Claims |
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1. A method, by one or more processors, for using an unmanned aerial system (UAS), comprising:
receiving a micro-weather report request, from a user via a network, for current weather information with respect to micro-weather conditions at a selected location and altitude;
analyzing an amount and quality of weather data available at the selected location and altitude to determine whether the amount and quality of the weather data available at the selected location and altitude is sufficient to respond to the request for the current weather information requested by the user based on a comparison of the weather data to a computed quality threshold, wherein the computed quality threshold is based on a number of captured weather reports by the UAS within a specified time period;
responsive to determining the available weather data is not sufficient to respond to the request based on the weather data being below the computed quality threshold, dispatching the UAS to the selected location and altitude, wherein dispatching the UAS includes:
responsive to determining the UAS is a manually-controlled UAS operated by a human user, detecting the UAS is traveling, within a predetermined vicinity of the selected location and altitude, wherein the manually-operated UAS is identified as being registered with a UAS traffic management repository having registered a plurality of UAS owned and operated by respective independent operators,
responsive to the detecting, transmitting a request to an operator of the UAS to travel to the selected location and altitude to determine the micro-weather conditions,
responsive to the operator accepting the request, redirecting, from a travel path of the current mission, the UAS to operate at the selected location and altitude,
responsive to determining the UAS is an autonomously-controlled UAS, identifying the UAS will execute a pre-programmed mission in which the UAS travels within the predetermined vicinity of the selected location and altitude, responsive to the identifying, transmitting a request to the UAS to travel to the selected location and altitude to determine the micro-weather conditions, and responsive to the UAS accepting the request, modifying the pre-programmed mission to detour the UAS to operate at the selected location and altitude; and determining the micro-weather conditions at the selected location and altitude utilizing a plurality of sensor devices associated with the dispatched UAS, wherein at least a first of the plurality of sensor devices obtains actual weather measurements associated with the micro-weather conditions and at least a second of the plurality of sensor devices, having primary functionality not explicitly related to obtaining weather measurements notwithstanding related to a flight of the UAS, obtains information used to deduce the micro-weather conditions.
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