Fleet of sailboat drones could monitor climate change’s effect on oceans

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http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/03/fleet-sailboat-drones-could-monitor-climate-change-s-effect-oceans

Source:  By Paul Voosen, Science.

Excerpt: Two 7-meter-long sailboats are set to return next month to California, after nearly 8 months tacking across the Pacific Ocean. ...No captains will be at their helms. That is not because of a mutiny. These sailboats, outfitted with sensors to probe the ocean, are semiautonomous drones, developed by Saildrone, a marine tech startup based in Alameda, California, in close collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Washington, D.C. The voyage is the longest test for the drones and also the first science test in the Pacific—an important step in showing that they could replace an aging and expensive array of buoys that are the main way scientists sniff out signs of climate-disrupting El Niño events.... 

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