Timelines | BLISS

First BVLOS CopterSonde Profile

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

First BVLOS CopterSonde profile.

3D Mesonet Operations Begin

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

3D Mesonet operations begin.

PRODIGEE Ends; LAAIRS Begins

Sun, 01 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

PRODIGEE NOAA project ends; LAAIRS NOAA project begins.

SCALES

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

SCALES Flight Week 3D mesonet campaign in Oklahoma; SWX-Q flies (OU ops).

CS-3D Patent Awarded

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

CopterSonde 3D patent awarded.

CS-SWX-Q Patent Filed

Wed, 01 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

CS-SWX-Q provisional patent filed.

CSWX-Q First Flights

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

CSWX-Q (CopterSonde SWX-Q) first flight tests.

PRODIGEE

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

PRODIGEE NOAA project begins.

OUTFLOW

Mon, 01 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

OUTFLOW flight campaign in the Great Plains.

PERiLS

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

PERiLS flight campaign in Mississippi/Arkansas.

TRACER

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

TRACER flight campaign in Houston, TX.

PERiLS

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

PERiLS flight campaign in Mississippi/Arkansas.

NOAA Airworthy Approval

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Airworthy approved for use in NOAA operations.

CASS Dissolved

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

CASS dissolved. WxUAS transitions to CIWRO/BLISS, including NSSL collaborators.

CopterSonde 3D Patent Filed

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

CopterSonde 3D patent filed.

COVID-19 / CopterSonde 3D Development

Mon, 01 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

COVID-19 shut down deployments. Time to refine and develop the CopterSonde 3D: first prototype system for a 3D Mesonet.

Winter Wx

Tue, 15 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Deployments to KAEFS for winter weather. One of the most impactful datasets to date.

LAPSE-RATE

Sun, 01 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Scoop refined. CopterSonde 2.5 developed and validated.

ISOBAR

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

First appearance of the “scoop” and the wind-vane flight mode. Campaign on Arctic sea ice. Record altitude reached (1.8 km).

EPIC

Wed, 01 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

NOAA UxS funded/led by NSSL. Octocopter design with sensors aspirated by the propellers. Ultimately did not perform to expectations and was impractical due to its size and weight. Led to Koch et al. 2018.

CASS Established

Thu, 01 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Center for Autonomous Sensing & Sampling (CASS) was established, leading to the CopterSonde concept.