The UAV, dubbed the Coyote, is a winged, 7-pound drone designed to be dropped from a plane and then slowly descend all the way through the core of a storm. Originally developed by the Navy for military surveillance, the hurricane-sensing version of the Coyote employs various sensors and a GPS device to transmit real-time data to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Hurricane Research Division. These data will allow scientists to better understand how storms intensify — and also to provide more accurate predictions about the storm’s path.
“They’re filling some critical gaps in our knowledge,” said meteorologist Sharan Majumdar, especially since a hurricane’s structure can change within hours. “Our hope is to be able to make better predictions about the impacts of hurricanes.” A hurricane’s structure changes hour by hour, he added. (See below for video of how the Coyote works.)
NASA researchers are also testing another type of drone that gleans data from above and around a storm. The Hurricane and Severe Storm Sentinel, or HS3, project uses two unmanned Global Hawks, which look like small planes, to investigate how hurricanes form. That project is in the final year of a three-year trial.