Drones take a different avatar at coastlines giving a new glimpse of it rather than what we think.
Jessica N. Cross, an oceanographer at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, shares her thoughts on the use of Saildrone, a sailboat-sized, commercially produced UAV in monitoring populations of fish and other information about the changing oceans in the Arctic.
The Saildrone innovation was initially composed by organization organizer Richard Jenkins to break the wind-controlled area speed record. From its tests ashore, it moved to handy applications in the water. It broke the record, achieving 126.2 miles for each hour in 2009.
The interesting aspects that features about the facts about Saildrone are as follows:
- The Saildrone, developed by Saildrone Inc. of California, is a 20-foot long, wind-and-solar powered vehicle that can be launched from a dock just like a boat.
- This is one of the capabilities that made it appealing to NOAA.
- Its ability to launch this way helps to save money on the purchase and operational costs of a research ship.
- It’s also fast, 2-3 knots on average or over 7 knots with a strong and favorable wind, and robust, able to hold 200 lbs of payload.
- That’s 7 to 8 times as much as other oceangoing autonomous vehicles.
Besides, it is also capable to fit a large amount of sensors on the autonomous drone also allows for new mission opportunities, including reconnaissance (the drone was used in cooperation with other vehicles and other organizations), sustained observations of large-scale weather patterns such as El Niño, and movable observation networks made of ships, moored sensors, and other vehicles.
As the Saildrone is termed as a vessel,regardless it needs a grant keeping in mind the end goal to go into an environment of a jeopardized marine creature, however NOAA arranges with other government associations and research groups so as to stay out of ranges where it may aggravate the nearby untamed life.
Specifically noteworthy in the mission in the Bering Sea was the Pacific right whale, the rarest whale in United States waters; walleye pollock, Alaska’s most basic business fish; and northern hide seals.
When the partnership between the NOAA and the Saildrone in Alaska was first announced in June, Douglas DeMaster, research and center director at NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Fisheries Science Center said, “As pioneers in this new research frontier we’re seeking to discover more cost-effective ways to augment our existing research efforts and gather additional biological information in places that are difficult to navigate with a full-sized research vessel.”
A year ago, NOAA tried the Saildrone amid a three-month term in the Bering Sea, where it was utilized to gather information on oceanographic conditions in close ongoing through an associated satellite.
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Source: Product Design and Development
