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A Drone Sailed Right Into the Eye of a Hurricane and Revealed What It Looks Like Inside

This is the first-ever footage of a hurricane captured with such precision. The drone recorded it amidst 50-foot waves crashing.
PUBLISHED 2 HOURS AGO
Clever drone Saildrone sailing in the Atlantic Ocean to capture the monstrous storm Hurricane Sam. (Cover Image Source: X | @NOAAResearch)
Clever drone Saildrone sailing in the Atlantic Ocean to capture the monstrous storm Hurricane Sam. (Cover Image Source: X | @NOAAResearch)

On September 30, 2021, the Atlantic Ocean was angry. As steam rose from the warm ocean waters and collided with the winds, a massive, fierce storm named Hurricane Sam was formed. While Sam barreled across the ocean, a brave camera-equipped drone sailed over the waves that towered as high as 50 feet and winds that blasted at over 120 mph. Named Saildrone, the drone was a brainchild of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the company Saildrone, which dispatched it to capture the monster Sam from inside the Atlantic. As the violent storm churned the ocean into huge swells of waves, Saildrone sent the team an ominous footage that sent jitters down the viewers’ spines.

Ocean waves swirling in a violent hurricane (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Bymuratdeniz)
Ocean waves swirling in a violent hurricane (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Bymuratdeniz)

Sam was a powerful Category 4 storm. The footage captured by Saildrone shows rampaging curtains of rain and sea spray ripping across the drone's lens as it battled its way through the sea, almost getting trapped in the waves. According to the official press release by NOAA, the drone, handsomely called SD 1045, featured MarsKeel’s unique lead ballast system to record Sam’s ferocious monstrosity by reaching straight into the eye of the storm.



 

The 23-foot vessel was equipped with a specially-designed “hurricane wing” designed so that the drone could operate in extreme windy conditions. A fleet of five hurricane drones was built into the machine so it could gather data to understand the physical mechanism based on which hurricanes explode and unfold. The objective, however, was not just to understand the science of hurricanes, but also to prevent the extent of loss suffered by human life dwelling in the nearby surroundings.



 

While constructing the drone, the designers shrank the vessel’s sail-like structure to a solid material rather than to cloth. They also lopped off one of the two arms that carried the instruments extending from either side of the sail. All these modifications were made so that the new model could tolerate wind speeds ranging from 60 mph to 115 mph, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Ocean waves swirling in a violent hurricane (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Alexander Fisher)
Ocean waves swirling in a violent hurricane (Representative Image Source: Getty Images | Alexander Fisher)

Explaining the new model, NOAA scientist Greg Foltz said in the press release, “Rapid intensification, when hurricane winds strengthen in a matter of hours, is a serious threat to coastal communities. New data from saildrones and other uncrewed systems that NOAA is using will help us better predict the forces that drive hurricanes and be able to warn communities earlier.”



 

Saildrone Founder and CEO, Richard Jenkins, also boasted that Saildrone is the first-of-its-kind camera to have captured a hurricane with such precision. “Saildrone is going where no research vessel has ever ventured, sailing right into the eye of the hurricane, gathering data that will transform our understanding of these powerful storms,” he explained, and added, “After conquering the Arctic and Southern Ocean, hurricanes were the last frontier for Saildrone survivability. We are proud to have engineered a vehicle capable of operating in the most extreme weather conditions on earth.”

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