Autonomous drone boats collect ocean climate data

Saildrones in Gulf Stream help shape climate predictions

Saildrone is an uncrewed surface vehicle (USVs) with an instrument payload sailing in the ocean to collect weather data. (Jenn Virskus, Saildrone)

Continuously gathering ocean data is difficult in remote, harsh ocean regions. Yet the information is critical for accurately predicting weather conditions and future climate change.

Floating platforms powered by wind and sunshine are getting deployed along the East Coast of the United States to collect year-round ocean data.

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Google.org is paying over a million dollars to pioneer a study to improve weather forecasts and understand how carbon impacts climate.

Saildrone’s ambitious project will launch six Saildrone USVs from Newport, Rhone Island, that will spend the next 12 months traversing the Gulf Stream at various points across the Atlantic Ocean.

This mission will collect data in the fast-flowing warm Gulf Stream current, which is hugely influential in Florida’s weather and climate around the globe.

It can absorb large quantities of carbon dioxide, providing a massive economic value in terms of its role in keeping CO2 from warming the planet.

The program will provide new insights about how carbon inputs and heat are moved around our oceans.


About the Author:

After covering the weather from every corner of Florida and doing marine research in the Gulf, Mark Collins settled in Jacksonville to forecast weather for The First Coast.