Blog

Saildrone Chief Scientist Dr. Eric Lindstrom offers a perspective on the future of physical oceanography and ocean observation over the next decade.

The 30-day mission supported by a Saildrone Award studies the behavior and environmental influencers of small fishes, squids, and crustaceans in the Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

The 60-day Saildrone effort to assess stocks of Pacific hake and five coastal pelagic species was carried out in two sub-missions extending the full length of the US west coast, from San Diego to Cape Flattery.

UNH, MBARI, and Saildrone will work together to advance deepwater ocean bathymetry thanks to a three-year grant from the National Oceanographic Partnership Program.

Two Saildrone USVs join the German RV Meteor and other unmanned technologies to study Atlantic Ocean eddies during the #MOSESeddyhunt in the first phase of the 2019 ATL2MED mission.

Two saildrones equipped with acoustic receivers located 34% of the Alaska red king crabs that were tagged by NOAA Fisheries in June.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute’s annual experiment to investigate the diurnal vertical migration included a Saildrone USV equipped with an echo sounder.

Two Saildrone USVs are sailing from Cabo Verde to Trieste, Italy on a six-month mission to better understand ocean acidification, the global carbon budget, and the socio-economic impacts of a changing ocean ecosystem.

The first partnership between Japan’s premiere marine-earth science agency and Saildrone included missions to the reference KEO offshore buoy, a study of the Kuroshio Current, and at the site of the Tropical Pacific m-Triton buoy.

After setting the record for the fastest unmanned Atlantic crossing, SD 1021 has now completed the return journey, not only beating its own record time but also becoming the first autonomous vehicle to transit in both directions across the Atlantic Ocean.

Dr. Eric Lindstrom, Physical Oceanography Program Scientist at NASA, will oversee the new Saildrone Ocean Observing Network.

Saildrone USVs can not only significantly reduce the cost of ocean mapping at scale, but they can also more easily and efficiently reach the most remote corners of the ocean.

Saildrone USVs are operated on a mission-as-a-service model and monitored from Saildrone Mission Control in Alameda, CA.

The City of Alameda launched the first-of-its-kind pilot project to bring high-capacity network access to Alameda Point research and development companies.

Join one of four USV working groups to participate in the further development of the Saildrone global surface observing network.

Saildrone partnered with the University of Southern Mississippi and NOAA to complete our first shallow-water multibeam bathymetry mission in the Gulf of Mexico.

Saildrone Forecast offers high-definition weather data tailored for competitive and recreational sailing. It’s great for other wind and water sports, too!

Two Saildrone USVs participated in a multidisciplinary effort to understand why great white sharks swim more than 1,300 miles each year to an ocean desert in the North Pacific.

Data from the 2019 Gulf Stream mission to quantify wintertime air-sea heat exchange is now available on the European Marine Observation and Data Network.

After suffering damage in a Gulf Stream storm, SD 1021 received a new wing in Bermuda and set out for the Solent on a mission to complete the fastest unmanned Atlantic crossing.

Data from the First Saildrone Antarctic Circumnavigation has been released to the global scientific community on Saildrone’s new data portal, data.saildrone.com, a repository of high-resolution in-situ observations collected by our global fleet of ocean drones.

SD 1020 survived freezing temperatures, 15-meter waves, 130 km/h winds, and collisions with giant icebergs to complete the 22,000-kilometer mission in 196 days.

Competitors at Cowes Week 2019 will have access to Saildrone Forecast, the first weather app powered by data from sailing ocean robots.

Wind and solar-powered autonomous vehicles are helping scientists to answer previously unanswerable questions about Earth’s oceans.

NOAA Fisheries and the Bering Sea Fisheries Research Foundation have teamed up to track seasonal movements of Alaska red king crab using a Saildrone USV equipped with an acoustic receiver.

Saildrone-ship-buoy comparisons were a key objective during NASA’s SPURS-2 field campaign, as highlighted by a paper published in a special issue of Oceanography.

Saildrone USVs have completed a series of missions to test the platform as part of the Tropical Pacific Observation System monitoring El Niño weather events in the Pacific Ocean.

The Saildrone USV equipped with a ROW sensor is the first platform capable of long-range autonomous oil spill detection in marine environments.

Forbes puts Saildrone Forecast among an innovative group of products developed by startups revolutionizing how weather is predicted.

Two concurrent missions will cover some 2,500 kilometers of coastline from San Diego to Vancouver Island.

Changes in the Antarctic ecosystem could impact the fur seals’ food supply, making foraging harder and in turn affecting the overall health of the population.

Six saildrones were deployed from Dutch Harbor, AK, to survey ongoing changes in the Arctic ecosystem in partnership with NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Lab and Alaska Fisheries Science Center and NASA.

Saildrone has partnered with the 1851 Trust to develop a series of data-driven lesson plans on issues related to the 2019 Antarctic Circumnavigation, free for teachers and educators.

Penguins are the most famous of Antarctic seabirds, but the region is home to dozens of pelagic species, including albatrosses, petrels, and terns.

The 2019 Sandeel and Saithe Mission will be the first European test of Saildrone USVs in partnership with Norway’s Institute of Marine Research.

SD 1020 is more than halfway around Antarctica, well on its way toward completing the first autonomous circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean.

Waves play a critical role in the health of the world ocean ecosystem.

SD 1023 captured this image in the Arctic, sparking a lively discussion among the Saildrone team and our science partners.

During the 2019 Antarctic Circumnavigation, Saildrone is taking critical measurements of Earth’s only circumpolar current.

Saildrone HQ is located in a former airplane hangar with a storied past—and once was used to film The Matrix Reloaded.

How innovative autonomous technology is helping scientists to solve the mystery of northern fur seals disappearing from the remote Pribilof Islands.

The Southern Ocean is critical for controlling how much CO2 is in the atmosphere, but as the water absorbs more carbon it becomes more acidic—and that could affect the health of a lot of organisms.

Just how variable is CO2 uptake in the Southern Ocean in winter?

60+ knot gusts and massive breaking waves? That’s just a typical day in the Southern Ocean.

A fleet of saildrones is collecting data from the Arctic to the Antarctic collecting data to make extreme weather forecasting more accurate and accessible.

The 2018 West Coast Fisheries Survey combined the efforts of a NOAA research vessel and a fleet of saildrones to observe and collect data on fish and marine mammals from anchovy to humpback whales.

Two centuries after the Belgica expedition became the first to survive a winter in Antarctica, Saildrone launched the first autonomous circumnavigation of the Southern Ocean.

This 30-day mission to study air-sea heat and carbon exchange in the Gulf Stream is made possible by a Saildrone Award.

The Saildrone Antarctic Circumnavigation, in partnership with the Li Ka Shing Foundation, is the first autonomous circumnavigation of this remote region.

Saildrone is proud to partner with Daughters of Rosie to offer new and exciting composite manufacturing career paths that support women—no experience necessary.

The first autonomous circumnavigation of Antarctica provides an unprecedented opportunity to bring this remote marine environment to the classroom.

Saildrones will attempt to track and study the behavior of chinstrap penguins tagged with GPS locators during the 2019 Antarctic Circumnavigation mission.

Three Saildrone USVs launched from Bluff, NZ, January 2019. Their mission: the first autonomous circumnavigation of Antarctica.

Check out the first weather forecast powered by ocean drone, available in the iOS App Store and on the web!

Bring Antarctica into your classroom with three STEM-oriented lesson plans that teach students about krill and its role in the global food web.

The Saildrone Award provides researchers with 30 days of ocean data collection for an innovative research project.

The Saildrone Baja Campaign studied upwelling and frontal region dynamics, air-sea interactions, and diurnal warming effects along the US/Mexico coast.

A flotilla of saildrones established a new northern record for an autonomous vehicle while measuring CO2 and Arctic cod abundance in the Chukchi Sea.

Watch Saildrone COO Sebastien de Halleux in an Ocean Discovery Talk about how USVs are collecting valuable data in remote and dangerous parts of the ocean.

In the Summer of 2018, five saildrones embark on the first autonomous full West Coast fisheries survey, in collaboration with Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, Oceans Canada, and the NOAA research vessel Reuben Lasker.

We are thrilled to welcome Horizons Ventures as a new partner to help accelerate Saildrone’s vision of a Quantified Planet.

Hint: A fleet of autonomous ocean drones collecting unprecedented amounts of data.

Today we are announcing an important development: Sending our first fleet of saildrones into the Southern Ocean, in partnership with CSIRO, Australia’s pre-eminent national science organization.

Learn how wind and solar-powered saildrones are collecting data at sea in unprecedented detail.

Saildrone and NOAA have been working closely to pioneer the use of autonomous technology for fisheries management and conservation.

Saildrone helped ECOGIG consortium researchers understand the effects of wind and current on natural oil slicks and their larger impact on the Gulf ecosystem.

Excited to announce we raised $14 Million in Series A to expand our fleet of sailing drones and grow our data services.

A saildrone is a sailboat-like uncrewed vehicle designed to provide cost-effective solutions for in situ data collection in the most remote regions of the ocean and in the harshest conditions.

The saildrone's patented wing design enables the USV to cross oceans while only consuming a few watts of electricity—but the wing was originally born on land.