NOAA, in partnership with The University of Southern Mississippi and with the robotics company Oshen, launched five small uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) called C-Stars in the waters off the U.S. Virgin Islands
NOAA, in partnership with The University of Southern Mississippi and with the robotics company Oshen, launched five small uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) called C-Stars in the waters off the U.S. Virgin Islands on August 31st to collect critical data to better understand hurricane development and activity. The deployment is the latest effort by NOAA to advance data collection to improve hurricane research and forecasting.
Two additional C-Stars will be stored in Gulfport, Mississippi, and will be ready for launch ahead of actively developing storms in the Gulf this fall.
“Understanding weather conditions where the ocean surface meets the lower atmosphere is key to predicting hurricane intensity,” said Greg Foltz, oceanographer for NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML). “If these miniature uncrewed surface vehicles prove reliable, they could become a critical piece of NOAA’s hurricane observing system in the future.”
NOAA has been expanding the use of uncrewed aircraft and marine systems to collect and use high-accuracy and time-sensitive data across its mission. A diverse array of uncrewed systems are already used in seabed mapping, marine mammal and fishery stock assessments, emergency response, including tornado damage assessments, and at-sea observations that improve forecasting of extreme events, such as hurricanes, harmful algal
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