Saildrone has just made history by sending an ocean drone where no research vessel has ever ventured – right into the eye of a monster storm. And they got amazing video footage in the process!
On September 30, US-based small business Saildrone, the makers of autonomous surface vehicles by the same name, sent an ocean drone into the eye of Hurricane Sam.
Sam, which is a Category 4 hurricane, will, fortunately, miss the US East Coast. But collecting information that is critical to understanding what drives the rapid intensification of a tropical storm is important for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Since it only takes one storm to devastate a community, an improvement in storm forecasting could allow for better preparedness in coastal communities, reducing the loss of human life.
Saildrone’s ocean drones provide data directly to NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological…
