Self-driving boat records 15m high waves in the center of the storm

USA The self-driving boat SD 1078 sailed into Hurricane Fiona in the Atlantic, battling fierce winds to gather valuable scientific data.

SD 1078, a self-driving boat operated by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and US company Saildrone, captures the scene inside Hurricane Fiona, which formed in the Atlantic Ocean and made landfall. entered Puerto Rico last week, Interesting Engineering reported on September 26.

Footage captured by SD 1078 shows the boat battling waves as high as 15 meters and winds of more than 160 km/h to collect key scientific data, providing a unique image of one of the The most destructive phenomenon on Earth - hurricanes.

Inside Hurricane Fiona, SD 1078 moved at a steady speed of over 14 km/h. It even reached a maximum speed of 63.9 km / h at times, before gliding down in a huge wave 17 m high.

SD 1078 is one of seven self-driving hurricane research boats operating in the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico this hurricane season, collecting data around the clock to help scientists understand more about the physical processes of storms. The data collected by self-driving boats can greatly improve forecasting, thereby reducing loss of life by helping coastal communities better prepare.

The SD 1078 self-driving boat will provide live data to NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) and the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML), Saildrone's partners in the mission. this service.

"Saildrone has once again demonstrated its ability to provide vital ocean data under the most extreme weather conditions. The data that Saildrone's vehicles are collecting will help the scientific community better understand the robustness of the weather. The rapid rise of storms gives residents in coastal areas more time to prepare," said Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone.

Strong storms are becoming increasingly common. "The frequency of rapidly intensifying storms has increased over the past four decades. This increase is linked to climate change," explains Jim Kossin, atmospheric research scientist at NOAA.