USV 2025
Hurricane Mission Blog

September 30, 2025

Five Oshen C-Star USVs coordinated with other observing platforms to monitor the development of Category 5 Hurricane Humberto (September 27-29, 2025), and sent back key wind, pressure, air temperature and humidity data at the air-sea interface, and sea surface temperature data in near real-time. Three C-Stars successfully sailed through the center of Humberto, with one measuring a minimum air pressure of 955 millibars and hurricane strength gusts of over 150 miles per hour in Humberto's eyewall.

Animation showing the location of the Oshen C-Stars in the Atlantic Ocean and their placement within the path of Hurricane Humberto. Sept. 27-29, 2025

In the meantime, two C-Stars (PC7 and PC10) were launched from the South Carolina coast on September 27 as part of the rapid deployment to observe the predicted potential landfall of Hurricane Imelda. Fortunately, as of September 30, Imelda is predicted to steer into the Atlantic Ocean, but the two C-Stars are collecting data on the coastal impacts of the two dancing storms, Imelda and Huberto (the rare Fujiwhara Effect).

Location of two C-Stars on map relative to storms Imelda and Huberto.

September 10, 2025

After a data intercomparison with NDBC buoy 41052 (small red dot in the map below), five Oshen C-Stars were launched from St. Thomas, USVI between August 31 and September 8. They are now in transit toward their target destinations (colored circles), ready to be mobilized for future hurricane intercepts. Two additional C-Stars are being stored in Gulfport, MS and are ready for rapid deployments to the Gulf or western Atlantic if a hurricane is forecasted to approach those areas.

Map of C-Star destination to the north of St. Thomas

Data are available in near real-time on the WMO Global Telecommunication System (GTS) for use by national prediction centers and can also be viewed and downloaded from the project data server.