Drone video of the ocean, flown by scientists from Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, captured about 360 miles southeast of Bermuda, depicts haunting blue waters and monstrous waves, serenaded by howling winds. Torrential rain and ominous sea spray can be seen swirling as the vehicle sways and tumbles across the turbulent surface of the ocean. Saildrone Explorer SD 1078 was in the best position to capture never-before-seen video of the interior of Fiona, the year’s first Category 4 hurricane, with waves near 50 feet and winds in excess of 100 mph on Thursday. The vehicle headed for Fiona as the storm raced north into the Atlantic Ocean. “[Saildrones are] giving us a whole new view of one of Earth’s most destructive forces,” Saildrone said in a press release. Four Saildrones have interacted with the storm, starting Sunday afternoon when it was still a tropical storm east of Montserrat. The storm then intensified into a Category 1 hurricane, colliding with a Saildrone that was south of Puerto Rico, where Fiona first made landfall. Saildrone sent its vehicles at the start of hurricane season to collect critical scientific data in the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico. Fiona will hit parts of Canada as the region’s strongest storm on record This is Saildrone’s second year deploying hurricane-equipped units in the Atlantic with the goal of taking measurements and footage as close to the eye of the hurricane as possible. The company builds and designs autonomous surface vehicles that collect ocean data to deepen understanding of hurricanes, map the ocean floor, and monitor various subsurface ecosystems. The California-based company boasts that its units have traveled more than 800,000 nautical miles and spent more than 18,000 days at sea collecting climate data and ocean mapping. “Saildrone once again demonstrates its ability to provide critical ocean data in the most extreme weather conditions. Hurricane Fiona intensified from a tropical storm to a Category 1 hurricane shortly before it hit Puerto Rico, causing significant damage and loss of life,” said Richard Jenkins, founder and CEO of Saildrone. “The data the Saildrone vehicles collect will help the scientific community better understand rapid intensification, giving people living in our coastal communities more time to prepare.” In 2021, scientists from Saildrone and NOAA flew Saildrone United 1045 into Category 4 Hurricane Sam and collected the first video from inside the hurricane. Scientists rode a robotic surfboard into Hurricane Sam and the waves were incredible The collaboration between NOAA and Saildrone is part of a larger effort to understand how hurricanes develop and how they intensify. “Unmanned systems in the air, on the surface of the ocean, undersea and aircraft systems have the potential to transform the way NOAA fulfills its mission to better understand the environment,” said Capt. Philip Hall, director of NOAA’s Uncrewed Systems Operations Center. NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft and weather buoys gather operational weather observations necessary for hurricane forecasts.
