www.tropicaltidbits.com

We can steer these into hurricanes.' How drones by air and sea help Florida's forecasts (June 2023)
www.bradenton.com

... When it comes to forecasting the world's most powerful storms, the more data you have, the better. Now, new air and sea drones are helping NOAA hurricane scientists explore the storms from never-before-seen angles. From pinpointing potentially lifesaving details about storm conditions to answering questions previously unknown to science, the new tech is filling crucial gaps in understanding. ...

Take, for instance, the Saildrone Explorer. It's an "uncrewed surface vessel" " that's a boat-like drone. The 23 feet-long, 1,000-pound, bright orange drone is solar- and hydro-powered, and it's remotely controlled via satellite by teams around the world. It continuously collects info about its surroundings to provide data points including salinity, water temperature and turbulence, as well as nearly real-time visuals from the ocean's surface.

Since NOAA began a partnership with the California-based company Saildrone in 2014, the autonomous aquatic data collector has become a major boon for hurricane scientists. "The most valuable thing is we can steer these into hurricanes," said NOAA oceanographer Greg Foltz. "That's unique." The data that the Saildrone collects from inside the storm's fury, where waves can reach 90 feet tall and winds climb to 125 mph, is fed directly into hurricane models.

"We hope ultimately to improve the models and improve hurricane intensity prediction," Foltz said. One particular concern is rapid intensification, or when hurricane winds increase by 35 mph or more in a 24-hour period. It's a pattern that is thought to be increasing with climate change, and more accurate predictions could help forecasters warn communities sooner....