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

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.

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.
Hurricane #Sam is expected to rapidly intensity to a major hurricane and slow down over the next few days, moving to the northeast of the northern Leeward Islands around the middle of next week.
— National Hurricane Center (@NHC_Atlantic) September 24, 2021
Continue to monitor changes to the forecast at https://t.co/TXjjNmgHXP pic.twitter.com/VmtS45sFVc
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.
To capture its video, Saildrone Explorer SD 1045 travelled through the inside eyewall of Hurricane #Sam, about 10-15 miles from the center of the eye.
— NOAA Research (@NOAAResearch) October 5, 2021
Learn how the data this @saildrone collected will help scientists understand hurricanes from @NOAA_AOML: https://t.co/CxzQJ8yT3r pic.twitter.com/zI94zGsiwY
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.

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.”
In a world first, a @saildrone has captured video from inside a hurricane.
— NOAA Research (@NOAAResearch) September 30, 2021
The Saildrone battled Hurricane #Sam's 50-ft waves and 120+ mph winds to collect critical scientific data and give us a brand new view of one of earth’s most destructive forces. https://t.co/vWHJUo1y2r pic.twitter.com/gO22wBhua2
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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