In what’s being touted as a world first, a drone sailboat was sent into a Category 4 hurricane in the Atlantic to capture live footage from inside the storm.
Saildrone collected the footage with one of its 23-foot Explorer remote-operated vessels, which was equipped with a specially designed “hurricane wing” to withstand the extreme weather conditions inside Hurricane Sam at the end of September.
It’s one of five such sailing drones deployed to collect data immediately before and during ocean storms in a partnership between the California-based Saildrone and the United States’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Saildrone is going where no research vessel has ever ventured, sailing right into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data that will transform our understanding of these powerful storms,” said Richard Jenkins, Saildrone founder and CEO.
“After conquering the Arctic and the Southern Ocean, hurricanes were the last frontier for Saildrone survivability. We are proud to have engineered a vehicle capable of operating in the most extreme weather conditions on earth.”
Scientific ata collected by the Saildrone Explorer fleet is expected to yield new insights into how large and destructive tropical cyclones grow and intensify, the company says.
A Saildrone Explorer with “hurricane wing” undergoes testing in San Francisco Bay | Credit: Saildrone
“This knowledge is critical to improving storm forecasting and is expected to reduce loss of human life by allowing better preparedness in coastal communities,” it adds.
All five sailing drones used in the mission are transmitting meteorological and oceanographic data from the eastern tropical Atlantic in real time.
This data is recorded with telemetry for air temperature and relative humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction, water temperature and salinity, sea surface temperature and wave height and period.
Saildrone says its data will be sent to the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Telecommunication System and disseminated to all of 20 major forecast centres worldwide.
Before the end of this year, Saildrone will launch several more missions in the Atlantic and elsewhere, including a year-round mission to study air-sea carbon dioxide exchange in the Gulf Stream.
