WASHINGTON — Weather buoys are an incredibly important resource for meteorologists. They can help reduce the loss of life and property and protect the ecosystem from natural and human-induced disasters.
A new Saildrone Uncrewed Surface Vehicle recently replaced a traditional moored buoy in Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary in California. The 23-foot underwater device was deployed in August and has been delivering data since September 1.
This technology is great news for the ecosystem – keeping mooring and anchor materials needed for traditional buoys out of important marine sanctuaries. It’s also great for the environment above water, too. Whenever anchored buoys need maintenance or experience outages, a crewed ship has to go out to sea and fix it. Saildrone Explorers are powered by renewable energy and can sail themselves back to land for regular service as another vehicle arrives to take its place.
Saildrone will deliver a similar set of data to that of the former buoy including:
- Wind speed and direction
- Air temperature
- Relative humidity
- Barometric pressure
- Sea surface temperature
- Significant wave height
- Wave period
