Saildrone

A Saildrone is a wind- and solar-powered uncrewed surface vehicle that carries a meteorological and oceanographic sensor suite across the open ocean for months without crew or fuel. The fleet has profiled air-sea fluxes, mapped fish stocks, and driven into hurricanes to return surface data from inside the storm. As part of the growing class of autonomous platforms it fills gaps between moored buoys and research ships at a fraction of the operating cost.