| Porthole 17 Dec 21

THE United States’ National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration is sending robot boats into the eye of hurricanes to collect video and data to help understand extreme weather.

The fleet of modified saildrones are obviously unmanned, and can stay at sea indefinitely, with a combination of wind and solar power.

They have also been modified to handle 140mph winds and giant waves.

Researchers say the Saildrone project should provide useful data on rapid intensification, when hurricane winds gain in strength over the course of a few hours.

Intensification can be dangerous to coastal communities because it gives so little warning.