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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

The ocean gliders, as they are called, resemble yellow-winged torpedoes [phys.org]. They were released into the ocean roughly 100 miles offshore at the continental shelf, where at depths of 100 to 300 feet they measured water temperatures, salinity and density before, during and even after the storm.

Traditional research aircraft that are flown into the eye of a hurricane to take measurements can't get a read on any of that.

"One reason hurricanes are so hard to forecast is that intensity depends on conditions ahead of and below the storm," said Glen Gawarkiewicz, an oceanographer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

The robotic gliders, which are remotely controlled from the shore, can delve into the heart of the storm where it's too dangerous or impractical to send people, and then feed real-time information via satellite to scientists safe on land.

It's easy to imagine the practice of underwater drones adding greatly to our knowledge of pollutants on the continental shelf and the health of fish stocks as well.

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