A growing fleet of seafaring and aerial drones stand ready to take the plunge into the heart of some of the most powerful storms on Earth during this year鈥檚 Atlantic hurricane season. The up-close measurements they make will help deliver more accurate hurricane warnings.
鈥淲e鈥檙e intentionally sailing an object into one of the most inhospitable and dangerous environments on Earth 鈥� the middle of a major Atlantic hurricane,鈥� says at Saildrone, a US company that has designed drones to capture sea surface measurements while surviving ocean waves the size of seven-storey buildings.
Each solar-powered Saildrone has a stiff central 鈥渨ing鈥� to move around like a wind-propelled sailboat 鈥� allowing them to steer into the path of storms instead of passively waiting in one location like tethered buoys.
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During the previous two hurricane seasons, Saildrone managed to steer one drone through the eyewall of Hurricane Sam in 2021 and another near the eyewall of Hurricane Fiona in 2022. Those missions provided 鈥渦nprecedented鈥� data on both wind turbulence and the ocean currents at the heart of the storms, says at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
This hurricane season, Saildrone has prepared a dozen drones 鈥� its largest fleet yet 鈥� to help patrol the Atlantic, Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. They usually sail for 90 days at a time, but two drones will be kept ashore for rapid deployment, which could improve the chances of intercepting a hurricane.
Another opportunity with the growing fleet would be to 鈥済et multiple Saildrones into the same hurricane鈥�, says Foltz. That could help measure the conditions in different parts of the same storm, which could immediately improve forecasts about what the storm might do and also enhance researchers鈥� long-term understanding of hurricanes.
NOAA will also deploy another set of drones this year that will launch in mid-air from a crewed aircraft, going on a one-way mission to measure the maximum wind speeds within a hurricane鈥檚 eyewall.
鈥淭he drone gets dropped into the eye and then goes around and around and around the rim,鈥� says at NOAA. 鈥淎nd then [it also goes] spiralling down in the eyewall, so we鈥檙e getting observations that [a crewed aircraft] would never be able to give us.鈥�
In previous years, NOAA鈥檚 鈥渉urricane hunters鈥� have piloted a four-engine aircraft through hurricanes at altitudes of about 3050 metres. Now the aircraft crews can also deploy the drones 鈥� with wingspans of up to 2.4 metres, equivalent to an albatrosses 鈥� which can fly low to measure storm conditions near the ocean surface.
One drone, the Anduril Altius-600, previously deployed during Hurricane Ian in September 2022. The drone recorded winds of over 347 kilometres per hour and descended to just 60 metres above the water鈥檚 surface.
The other drone being tested this hurricane season, the Black Swift S0, is untested in major hurricanes and can fly for only about 1.5 hours compared with the Altius-600鈥檚 4-hour flight time. But it carries a laser sensor that could enable even lower flying without hitting the waves.
For the first time, both flying drones will also carry a turbulence sensor capable of measuring wind patterns in three dimensions within a storm, says Cione.
All that data can be transmitted via satellite back to NOAA鈥檚 National Hurricane Center within hours. Such drone measurements can sharpen near-term predictions of hurricane direction and wind strength 鈥� not to mention the potential storm surge 鈥� to help make decisions about coastal evacuations.
In the long run, says Foltz, the data can help researchers better simulate the physics of hurricanes and improve future forecasts.
