Tropical Storm Debby, the fourth named storm of the season, formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday and made landfall in Florida as a Category 1 hurricane, causing major flooding and tornadoes. Debby has since weakened to a tropical storm and moved through Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina, with flooding expected to continue through Sunday. Before reaching Florida, a drone, part of Saildrone’s USVs, ventured into the storm, recording wind gusts over 60 knots and waves over 16 feet high. Saildrones are durable data-gathering machines piloted into storms in collaboration with NOAA to study hurricane conditions. This year’s mission aims to gather data on how salinity and carbon dioxide exchange in hurricanes, as well as the impact on the global carbon budget. The Saildrones are equipped with sensors to measure various weather conditions and will remain at sea until October, powered by renewable wind and solar energy. The data collected by the USVs will be used in combination with information gathered by NOAA’s Hurricane Hunter aircraft and gliders to better understand how major storms form, track, and intensify.
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