There’s a drone for just about everything these days from delivering pizzas to going to war, but a new unmanned aerial vehicle may save your life from a looming hurricane.
The 13-pound Coyote drone developed by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will fly into parts of a tropical cyclone that no manned aircraft would dare go.
Skimming the surface of the ocean, the drone will collect data on sea temperature and air pressure in an area of the storm that has largely been invisible to forecasters in the past.
Paul Reasor, a NOAA hurricane researcher, holds Coyote drone in this 2014 photo. (Photo by NOAA)
It’s not cheap. Each drone costs about $15,000 and each mission is a one way ticket. When the drone runs out of battery, it crashes into the ocean, lost forever.
“We all live down at the surface and we need to know what is going on there to make better predictions,” said Joseph Cione, a meteorologist and principal investigator on the Coyote for NOAA. “We think this a game changer.”
The drone was first tested last year, but will begin flying real missions this hurricane season and sending information straight to the National Hurricane Center.