In the News

One day before Hurricane Idalia smashed into Florida’s Big Bend region, a bright orange ocean drone crossed paths with the major hurricane in a turbulent Gulf of Mexico.

Saildrone’s autonomous sea vehicles are at work off New England, tracking marine mammal movements and help design proposed offshore wind energy turbine projects.

On a live, graphic map of Great Lakes ships and their positions was something labeled as unmanned. It had been in Lake Michigan for days — and it was moving.

An arsenal of equipment helps track developing tropical cyclones, from 46-year-old workhorse airplanes to unmanned solar- and wind-powered drones.

Throughout history, most sea captains have tried to steer their vessels out of extreme weather, but the whole purpose of SD 1045 was to steer into it.

Using autonomous solar-powered sailing robots is a safe, reliable and climate-friendly way to collect the data we need from remote areas like the Arctic.

Despite harsh conditions, resilient saildrones have successfully monitored the presence of ocean CO2 across the world, an ever-more-urgent task as climate change becomes increasingly evident.

Saildrone has been selected to receive a major award to facilitate offshore wind’s coexistence with wildlife and other ocean users.

A Saildrone built to withstand hurricane-force winds dared to enter Hurricane Fiona on Thursday, Sept. 22, and it witnessed scenes of chaos within the Category 4 storm.

Video taken by a Saildrone shows the camera struggling to stay afloat as waves rocked back and forth.

A Saildrone Explorer captured rare, dramatic footage of the Category 4 hurricane as it approached Bermuda.

The powerful Category 4 storm is making its way across the Atlantic as a Saildrone Explorer investigates it from sea level.

Buoys 42001 and 42003, stationed in the Gulf of Mexico for NOAA's National Data Buoy Center, went out of service at a crucial time, just as waters are warming up ahead of hurricane season.

Seafaring drones on Lake Superior will soon allow a team of Cornell scientists to examine fresh details about the abundance and distribution of forage fish.

Saildrones will be guided into hurricanes in the Atlantic for the second straight year. The goal: improving storm forecasts.

Drones will be patrolling Lake Superior for the next few weeks — some underwater, some on the surface — trying to document how many little fish live in the big lake.

In partnership with NOAA, Saildrone Inc. is deploying seven ocean drones to collect data from hurricanes during the 2022 hurricane season, including two in the Gulf of Mexico.

To improve future tropical cyclone forecasts, researchers sent a remotely operated saildrone into the extreme winds and towering waves around the eye of a category 4 hurricane.

This California company is planning to deploy a thousand autonomous saildrones to scour the oceans and gather never before seen data that could change our world for the better.

Esta nueva tecnología ha navegado más de 500,000 millas náuticas, recorriendo desde el Polo Norte hasta el Polo Sur recompilando información meteorológica, cartográfica y de seguridad marítima.

Crewless sailboats are being sent by meteorologists inside hurricanes, allowing experts to safely study these intense storms.

It turns out, salt—or a lack thereof—along the ocean's surface is playing a role in how hurricanes strengthen before striking the Caribbean and southeastern US.

It was a world first: a plucky, bright orange saildrone capturing video footage from inside a hurricane.

Six unmanned Saildrones are heading out on a six-month voyage to face some of Earth's most hostile ocean conditions, in hopes of improving climate change and weather forecast computer models.

Three ocean drones were launched from Rhode Island and will travel along the Gulf Stream, collecting data in tough winter conditions that would be challenging for traditional ships with crews.

After providing incredible video from inside a monster storm this year, saildrones still have plenty of work to do after the end of hurricane season.

Labs across the country are already putting this floating Swiss Army Knife, which offers data from the ocean’s surface missing from satellite imagery, to work.

Last month, two Saildrone Explorers were spotted on the St. Clair River and Black River canal after a 45-day mission to collect scientific data on our Great Lakes.

Saildrone is helping NASA scientists to study better understand how Earth’s oceans slow the impact of global warming and impact the Earth climate system.

Warning: May induce extreme nausea.

The 23-foot unmanned vessel pierced the eyewall of Hurricane Sam and captured stunning images as the storm barreled through the Atlantic Ocean.

A vehicle operated by Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has gone "where no research vessel has ever ventured" to capture footage from the eye of Hurricane Sam.

The Saildrone Explorer is being used for the first time as part of the European project EuroSea to help improve ocean observation in the tropical Atlantic and promote sustainability.

It was the first-ever ocean drone to intercept a major hurricane, battling 50-foot waves and winds gusting higher than 120 mph.

On July 7, 2021, NASA sent two Saildrone Explorers to the Arctic to collect sea surface temperature data and improve estimates of ocean temperatures in that region.

Richard Jenkins is interviewed live on the BBC World Service's Newsday program to talk about current Saildrone missions. Interview starts at 40:30.

They look like bright orange sailboats, but nobody will be taking one of these for a joyride. They are hurricane-hunting drones destined to face some of the fiercest storms on the planet.

Two bright orange, robotic sailboats are plying the waters of lakes Michigan and Huron on a 45-day mission to amass important fisheries data—no crew required.

It’s something that has never been done before until now. Two sailing drones are on the Great Lakes right now on a mission to collect data.

Saildrone founder and CEO Richard Jenkins joined America's Morning Headquarters on The Weather Channel to discuss how Saildrone will help to improve hurricane forecasting.

The key to making hurricane forecasts suddenly clearer and more accurate might have floated out to sea from Jacksonville last week on something looking like orange surfboards with wings.

Autonomous Saildrone Explorers launch from Fort George Island, Virgin Islands on Friday.

The information Surveyor gathers can also help in the study of marine habitats and resources. The vessel performs the same mapping as large fuel-burning ships but at a fraction of the cost.

Novel uncrewed sailing vehicles measured properties of atmospheric cold pools in hard-to-reach regions of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean.

Saildrone is set to launch a first-of-its-kind mission sending a fleet of USVs into the turbulent waters of the Gulf Stream for one year to study air-sea heat and carbon exchange.

You know about the Hurricane Hunters that fly directly into the storms dropping small weather computers. This year, there's a new kid in town: The Saildrone USV.

Saildrone and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are sailing ocean drones into the path of an approaching storm collect data about hurricane dynamics.

With the help of game-changing new saildrones, they'll be able to venture into depths they've never gone before, right into the eye of the hurricanes.

The year-long mission aims to help scientists better understand how the gulf stream affects weather, climate, and atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Saildrone founder & CEO Richard Jenkins talks to Dr. Hannah Fry about the Saildrone Gulf Stream mission funded in part by Google.org's Impact Challenge on Climate.

Weather forecasting is expected to further improve when six Saildrones begin to explore the Gulf Stream waters off the East Coast.

Saildrone Inc., an operator of ocean-going unmanned surface vessels (USVs), has been selected by Google to collect oceanographic data on the Gulf Stream.

Scientists are now hoping to gain a better understanding of what makes the Gulf Stream tick by launching “saildrones” that will transmit observations for up to a year.

Analysis of direct measurements collected during the 2019 Saildrone Antarctic Circumnavigation is highlighting questions about the Southern Ocean's role in storing carbon dioxide.

After ship-based surveys were canceled due to COVID-19, NOAA found an innovative ways¬ to collect data—using saildrones to perform an acoustic survey of pollock.

Remote sensing technology proves effective in monitoring key regions of the world’s oceans, where upwelling and other essential ecosystem services occur.

Data collected by saildrones helps determine sustainable catch after ship-based surveys are cancelled due to the global pandemic.

This may be the first time data collected using USVs were used to help produce an annual estimate of abundance for a commercial fish stock.

Small unmanned watercraft like saildrones are revolutionizing oceanography and beginning to answer questions about climate change that have troubled scientists for decades

Two saildrones equipped with sensors to collect information on marine waters such as salinity, temperature, and CO2 have arrived in Trieste 274 days at sea.

When it became clear that ship-based surveys would be canceled due to COVID-19, biologists at NOAA Fisheries turned to Saildrone to collect Alaska pollock data.

Scientists are capitalizing on existing technological capabilities and partnerships to collect fisheries data after ship-based surveys were canceled due to COVID-19.

Two robotic “saildrones” have crossed the Strait of Gibraltar. The vehicles are part of the Atlantic to Mediterranean campaign, an experiment involving 12 institutions.

Scientists successfully tested the feasibility of using Saildrones to follow individual fur seals over long distances while simultaneously assessing their prey and habitat.

After sailing more than 36,000 nautical miles and going where no drones have gone before, a fleet of five saildrones has returned to shore in Dutch Harbor.

A new research study by University of Washington atmospheric scientists hopes saildrone will be the key to vastly improved weather forecasts across the globe.

It was an audacious idea: To send an unmanned saildrone on a 13,670-nautical-mile journey around Antarctica alone, at the mercy of the most hostile seas on the planet. In winter.

Saildrone has completed the first unmanned circumnavigation of Antarctica, gathering scientific data crucial to climate scientists along its route.

Automated vessels are making it possible for scientists to monitor chemistry anytime, anywhere in Earth’s oceans

Scientists in La Jolla are using cutting-edge technology to track schools of fish off the west coast.

Scientists launched two of the neon-orange, wind-propelled robots off the Washington coast at Neah Bay to survey fish and help improve weather forecasts.

NOAA Research and NOAA Fisheries have teamed up with partners to test innovative technologies that, if successful, will enable researchers to gather information in areas of the ocean.

NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory has partnered with a private technology company to deploy a new autonomous vehicle for ocean observations: the saildrone.

The public-private partnership between NOAA and Saildrone Inc., Jenkins’ startup company, began in 2014 when Chris Meinig of NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory met Jenkins.

The CSIRO has three saildrones under its command and plans to use them to collect scientific information from the surface of the ocean.

Saildrone, a Californian marine-robotics startup, is looking at the problem of managing fish stocks. Its tools are robot sailing boats covered with sensors.

The drones will replace NOAA's aging network of buoys to monitor ocean currents and weather patterns.

Two 7-meter-long sailboats are set to return next month to California, after nearly 8 months tacking across the Pacific Ocean.

Ocean data provides essential insights into the state of the planet, but deep sea missions are expensive. Saildrones are smarter and cheaper than large ships, and they are about to explore the world.

The northern fur seals on St. Paul Island are one of the most-studied marine mammals on the planet, but there’s still a lot scientists don’t know.

Autonomous ocean drone startup Saildrone has raised $14 million in a Series A round led by Social Capital, with participation from the Capricorn Investment Group and Lux Capital.

Two robotic sailboats trace lawn-mower-style paths across the violent surface of the Bering Sea, off the coast of Alaska. The boats are counting pollock.

What do pirate fishing, marine protected areas, and cutting edge sailboat technology have in common? More than you might think.

The Saildrone Surveyor found the mountain during its first mission to map unexplored areas of the ocean floor off of California and Alaska.

A mountain would seem to be a tough thing to miss, but a new one has been found off the coast of Northern California.

Saildrone recently completed the first uncrewed Alaska ocean mapping mission and discovered a 3,200-foot-tall seamount off the coast of California.

A drone just finished the first-ever mapping of the seabed and coast around Alaska's Aleutian Island. The mission supplies details, previously a mystery for multiple reasons.

A complete ocean map will lead to a boundless number of discoveries, some of which will be important enough to reshape what we think we know today about Earth and oceanic processes.

80% of our ocean floors have never been studied. This robot sailboat is unlocking the most treacherous parts.

Uncrewed surface vehicles called saildrones are being used to map the ocean floor accurately and less expensively using high-tech sonar equipment.

Saildrone expects an increase in the number of seabed reconnaissance missions its platforms will carry out in 2023 across the the Atlantic, Pacific and the Middle East.

The two companies announced their strategic partnership in connection with the Saildrone Surveyor autonomous “uncrewed” surface vehicle.

The Innovation Award recognizes new technology that seeks to remedy a problem affecting ocean health and stands to have a transformative effect on the marine environment.

Esta nueva tecnología ha navegado más de 500,000 millas náuticas, recorriendo desde el Polo Norte hasta el Polo Sur recompilando información meteorológica, cartográfica y de seguridad marítima.

To achieve the aggressive goals of Seabed 2030, uncrewed survey systems must be used to augment more traditional ocean mapping efforts, particularly on the high seas.

Using renewable wind and solar energy for its primary power source, the Saildrone Surveyor is the only vehicle in the world that is capable of long-endurance, uncrewed ocean mapping operations.

The information Surveyor gathers can also help in the study of marine habitats and resources. The vessel performs the same mapping as large fuel-burning ships but at a fraction of the cost.

The Saildrone Surveyor—a remote-operated, autonomous vehicle that looks like a sailboat—successfully completed its maiden voyage from San Francisco to Honolulu on Thursday afternoon.

A remotely controlled sailboat that maps the ocean floor arrived in Honolulu on Thursday afternoon as part of its maiden voyage.

A fleet of saildrones mapped the 20 meter and 50-meter isobaths off Alaska’s North Slope potentially making nautical travel safer and more efficient.

The 72-foot vehicle is designed to map the ocean floor, and its solar-powered sensors will sample eDNA and collect climate data.

Saildrone’s newest ocean-going vehicle can spend up to 12 months at sea and uses wind and solar to power sensors that can map down to 7,000 m.

Traditionally, large ships have been used to chart the sea floor, but technologies like Saildrone, with enhanced mapping abilities, can accelerate exploration.

Saildrone collaborated with NOAA survey partner TerraSond on the 8,000-nautical-mile mission to make more detailed maps of the Arctic seafloor.

Four uncrewed vessels departed Alameda, CA, to begin their transit across the Pacific Ocean, through Unimak Pass, across the Bering Sea, and into the Arctic.

Saildrone completed the first multibeam seabed mapping mission in the Gulf of Mexico in partnership with USM and NOAA.

Saildrone launched with seafloor mapping capabilities in the Gulf of Mexico shows promise for remote Arctic mapping

The US hopes to get a clearer picture of its Arctic waters using Saildrone unmanned surface vehicles and sonar imaging systems.