“NOAA has partnered with US company Saildrone, a data company that manufactures seafaring drones, to deploy instruments capable of weathering the high winds and waves of developing hurricanes. These saildrones are packed with sensors to collect data about the oceanic and atmospheric conditions, which is then relayed to the government agency whose scientists will analyse the data.

A saildrone is a ‘wind-propelled vehicle that looks a lot like a sailboat’, says Julia Paxton, director of mission management at Saildrone. The drones – which come in a variety of sizes, either 23ft (7m), 33ft (10m) or 65ft (20m) long – combine wind propulsion with solar-powered meteorological and oceanographic sensors that allow scientists to measure the track, or path, a hurricane it taking along with changes in its intensity over time.

The saildrones can also capture data beneath the waves and analyse ocean currents. This helps ‘create a complete [picture] of the air and water column, from 30,000ft (9,144m) above [sea level] to several 1,000ft (300m) below the surface’, says Paxton.

Saildrone’s mission is ‘not about predicting hurricanes this season’, says Paxton. ‘It’s about studying why and how hurricanes intensify so that in the future we can improve hurricane modelling.'”

From BBC.