A saildrone, SD-1041, deployed to intercept Hurricane Beryl, sent back photos, video and data from the major storm on Tuesday.
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, Hurricane Beryl was 422.5 miles ESE of Kingston, Jamaica. The hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph.
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The saildrones are operated by Saildrone, Inc. of Alameda, Calif. The company's fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles are powered by renewable wind and solar power and designed to scale ocean data collection.
Saildrone vehicles operate 24/7/365 without the need for a crewed support vessel. Saildrone USVs have sailed more than 1,000,000 nautical miles from the Arctic to the Antarctic and spent over 32,000 days at sea in the harshest ocean conditions on the planet.
Beryl is forecasted to weaken slightly from category 4 to 3 as it passes over Jamaica.
SD-1041 was deployed from St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, on June 24, the drone's second hurricane mission. It was previously deployed for the 2023 hurricane mission (also from St. Thomas); it was also deployed to the Arctic in 2019 and 2022.
SD-1041 is one of 12 Saildrone Explorer uncrewed surface vehicles that will be deployed this season for hurricane monitoring.
Saildrone was expected to deliver hurricane monitoring data for NOAA beginning the first week of August, however, SD-1041 went on mission early to sail toward an intercept with Hurricane.
As it approached the northern edge of Hurricane Beryl (as a major category 5 hurricane), SD-1041 experienced increased wind speeds and significant wave height, along with a decrease in pressure and several rapid decreases in air temperature from associated rain bands.
- 1 min interval: Lowest pressure measured was 1009.67 with associated winds (~3 m height) of 38 mph sustained, gusts 44 mph and significant wave height of 6.508 meters.
- Largest sustained waves observed were 7.79 meters @ 12.8 sec
- Strongest winds measured (~3 m height) were 50 mph sustained, gusts 61.5 mph.
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