In the News
No Sailors Needed: Robot Sailboats Scour the Oceans for Data
Two robotic sailboats trace lawn-mower-style paths across the violent surface of the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska. The boats are counting fish — haddock, to be specific — with a fancy version of the fish finder sonar you’d find on a bass fishing boat.
Sailboat-Like Drone Helps NOAA Study the Arctic Ecosystem
Drones are changing the way we look at coastlines. In a conference call on Thursday about the use of drones in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Jessica N. Cross, an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, talked about the use of Saildrone, a sailboat-sized, commercially produced UAV in monitoring populations of fish and other information about the changing oceans in the Arctic.
Unmanned ‘Saildrones’ Depart Once Again from Dutch Harbor on Bering Sea Data-Gathering Mission
The innovative Saildrones, developed by Saildrone Inc, have once again been deployed to the Bering Sea, taking the place of manned vessels to gather information from areas that are generally inaccessible to full-sized research vessels, and are able to operate in a more cost-effective way.
NOAA invests $4.5 million to improve ocean observations for weather and climate prediction
NOAA’s Climate Program Office announced today that it is investing $4.5 million in four projects to test technology designed to improve the Tropical Pacific Observing System, an array of buoys in the tropical Pacific used to better understand El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), how it develops, and how it affects Earth’s weather.
Unmanned Vessels Deployed for Alaska Ocean Research
Researchers in the Bering Sea off Alaska's west coast will get help this summer from drones, but not the kind that fly. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and private researchers are gathering data on marine mammals, fish and ocean conditions from two "autonomous sailing vessels" built by Saildrone, an Alameda, California, company.