Incredible footage from one of the several Saildrones launched by NOAA Research last week into Hurricane Ernesto to gather data at the air-sea interface during the storm. Its a good thing robots don’t get seasick because this USV was subjected to nearly 10m (32.8 feet) waves and 87 mph wind gusts off the coast of Bermuda. If you’ve ever wondered what sailing into a hurricane would look like, now you know:
This the 4th annual joint hurricane mission between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Saildrone. New this year, two of Saildrone USVs will collect data on air-sea CO2 exchange during hurricane events:
“It’s not known how hurricanes affect the exchange of CO2 between the ocean and the atmosphere and how that impacts the global carbon budget. If we can get one of these two USVs into a major storm, it would give us some of the first direct measurements of air-sea CO2 exchange inside a hurricane.” — Greg Foltz, NOAA oceanographer
