Storm scientists sent a hardy seafaring drone into the heart of September’s powerful Hurricane Sam.

The robot captured the first-ever footage from an uncrewed vehicle — a 23-foot-long robot called a Saildrone — filming deep inside a tropical cyclone. The Saildrone captured 50-foot waves and winds of over 120 mph.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration mission is intended to improve scientists’ understanding of how hurricanes rapidly intensify into monstrous storms with destructive winds and deadly flooding. The Saildrone measures the critical conditions on the sea surface that drive these intensification events.



“We’ll learn a lot,” Gregory Foltz, a NOAA oceanographer, told Mashable in June.

As the climate warms, storm scientists expect major flooding and storm surges from hurricanes to increase, and are currently researching how a relentlessly warming ocean will impact hurricane intensity.

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October 2, 2021