OTTER: building drone-borne lasers to measure turbulence
OTTER needs a laser light enough to fly and precise enough to do science. Menapia designs, builds and operates the airborne instrument for Durham’s OTTER project — a fibre-coupled laser under 25 grams, flown as a remotely-operated automated system — and this week ran its first end-to-end field test at Leeds Farm.
Into the clouds: DOOC and our new airspace at Snaisholme
With Dr Declan Finney (UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, Leeds), Menapia’s DOOC project is measuring clouds from drones — and this week we began flying in our new EGD493 airspace at Snaisholme under CAA authorisation to 1.5 km.
Down to −50 °C: proving the drone dock at Sheffield's LVV
Before trusting an autonomous drone dock to a remote cold site, we took it to the University of Sheffield’s environmental chamber and ran it down to −50 °C — mapping its heating power, recovery time, and the temperature envelope it can still launch in.
A drone-in-a-box for the Greenland ice sheet: GAMB2LE and AURORA
GAMB2LE puts an advanced atmospheric observatory — AURORA — on the Greenland ice sheet. Menapia is building the arctic-hardened drone-in-a-box that flies routine atmospheric profiles from it, beating propeller icing and running remotely from the UK.
Paddy Logan joins Menapia as Managing Director
Patrick “Paddy” Logan — formerly Head of Operations Assurance at the UK Military Aviation Authority — joins Menapia as Managing Director, bringing military-grade aviation safety discipline to our growing atmospheric drone operations.
742 flights, one Icelandic field, no pilot on site
In an extended Iceland trial, a Menapia drone flew 742 automated profiles from a weatherproof dock — launching, profiling, and swapping its own battery with no pilot on site, more than half of the flights reaching above the boundary layer.
Menapia in ARIA's Forecasting Tipping Points programme
Menapia is contributing drone-based atmospheric measurement to ARIA’s Forecasting Tipping Points programme — including OTTER (turbulence-sensing lasers) and GAMB2LE (flying in the cold). Here’s the why.
Flying off the back of a ship: STRINQS in the tropical Atlantic
Four Menapia quadcopters went to sea in 2024, flying simultaneous, coordinated atmospheric profiles from a research vessel in the mid-Atlantic for TU Delft’s STRINQS campaign — including the first three-drone coordinated hexagon we know of from a moving ship.
Menapia Hosts Shadow Chancellor Rt Hon Rachel Reeves
On December 14th 2023, Menapia proudly hosted the Shadow Chancellor, Rt Hon Rachel Reeves, at our Leeds headquarters. The highlight was introducing her to the MetSprite, our advanced wxUAS (weather un-crewed aerial system). More than just a drone, the MetSprite represents a significant leap in weather forecasting and climate monitoring capabilities, offering unprecedented cost-efficiency compared to existing solutions.
WMO whitepaper, co-authored by our CMO, discusses 2024 demonstration campaign
WMO whitepaper, co-authored by our Chief Meteorological Officer Ben Pickering, discusses UAS for operational meteorology and the WMO 2024 demonstration campaign
Drone missions take flight as part of Met Office WesCon campaign
MetSprite successfully completes 2km profiles as part of the WesCon campaign
Menapia Receives UK CAA Approval for high altitude Beyond Visual Line of Sight Operations
Menapia, a leading provider of weather monitoring solutions, has received approval from the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations for their MetSprite wxUAS.
Menapia attends the UAS Weather Technology Forum in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Between 16–18 August 2022, Oklahoma State University (OSU) in partnership with the Tulsa Innovation Lab (TIL) held a conference to share the latest on UAS development, innovations and usage in the atmospheric and environmental sciences. Dr. Ben Pickering, Chief Meteorological Officer for Menapia, attended this event, and recounts his experiences here.
Employee Profile: Junior Engineer
In our first employee profile, Nawami Jasm gives us an insight into working at Menapia