Bay Area company's Saildrones gathering critical info about Hurricane Milton for NOAA
ALAMEDA, Calif. (KGO) -- There's a unique Bay Area connection to Hurricane Milton.
An Alameda company called Saildrone, Inc. has been monitoring the hurricane with ocean drones.
The drones are designed to take a beating during dangerous weather conditions while gathering critical information for NOAA. Saildrone, Inc. has been collecting hurricane data for NOAA for the past four years.
A Saildrone is a powerful tool manufactured in Alameda.
It's bright like a buoy, but acts like a sailboat and is an unmanned drone.
"Saildrone technology is very exciting," said Robbie Dean, VP of Program Delivery of Saildrone, Inc. "We're so happy to be able go out into the ocean to these very remote places and collect persistent data."
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Saildrone - the company, has deployed about 50 drones around the world. It has also deployed 12 drones specifically to monitor hurricane conditions in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. Those drones are equipped with scientific sensors to capture data that scientists are looking for.
One Saildrone has provided valuable insight about Hurricane Milton.
"That video is collected by Saildrone 1083. We were able to power up our video camera in the middle of that hurricane - just for a little short clip to see what it's like at the sea surface during a very intense hurricane like that," said Dean. "We're able to collect barometric data like barometric pressure, wind strength, ocean salinity. Those are very important pieces of information for scientists to understand the rapid intensification of hurricanes."
What's unique about the drone technology is that you can send a Saildrone into environments where you don't want to send people -- like a Category 5 hurricane.
"The uncrewed nature keeps personnel safe and enables our customers to get the data that they need in these very remote and tough locations," said Dean.
A Saildrone is released a mile offshore and then remote pilots take control and guide them to where they need to go.
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So how does a Saildrone withstand hurricane force winds and other intense conditions?
"Saildrones were designed to be very robust sailing platforms. They go out there and they take a beating," said Dean. "You can see under the drone is a keel. That keeps the fin below the drone is weighted with lead. And so, the wind that the sail drone experiences above the surface is counteracted by that big lead fin below the drone."
The drones are designed to operate and move around in the ocean by harnessing the power of the wind and sun.
"We power the sensors with a battery pack in the drone. With those two sources of energy, we're able to stay out there very very long time," said Dean.
In the end, it's about gathering the information and using the science to make things safer for everyone.
"We recognize these hurricanes are very destructive to the people. We hope the data we collect is powerful for scientists to develop ideas on how we can reduce the risk for damage and loss of life," said Dean.
