20 With scientists for parents, a biology teacher uncle and a childhood spent largely outdoors, environmental science called to Dr Bryan Cole from an early age. These days, he heads the Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office (UxSTRO) at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where his remit is to explore how uncrewed systems of all kinds can help further NOAA’s mission to monitor, understand and predict the global environment. “What drew me to NOAA was that it is an applied environmental science agency,” he says. “It has a wonderful mission: it studies, monitors and manages the United States’ oceans and coasts, forecasts the weather and works to understand and forecast the climate as well as managing marine fisheries and endangered marine species.” Climate change and the blue economy Climate change is also central to this mission. “A major focus of the agency, is understanding our impact on the climate and forecasting what is going to happen in a wide range of scenarios,” he says. “Studying that is part of the global community.” NOAA is also tasked with supporting the growth of the blue economy, a term that refers to the exploitation, preservation and regeneration of the marine environment. “We’re working to develop our understanding and grow industry in the maritime technical space,” he says. “NOAA really has a wide range of missions, and there are many ways in which uncrewed systems can be applied to them, from the top of the atmosphere to the bottom of the ocean, with the goal of filling gaps in observational data.” He explains that if anybody in NOAA wants to find out whether any kind of uncrewed system can gather information that they couldn’t otherwise get, the UxSTRO works to help them. The agency’s director of its Uncrewed Systems Research Transition Office explains the growing importance of UASs in its work. Peter Donaldson reports NOAA’s arc December/January 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology The Horus gas sample return glider being prepared for launch, tethered to the weather balloon that carries it to the top of the atmosphere at around 95,000 ft, where it is released (Courtesy of NOAA)
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