The small red remote-controlled sailboat, topped with a sail of the same color, could be mistaken for an oversized toy. But this little vessel is no plaything. It is a valuable new tool in gauging whether ocean conditions might grow into a hurricane.
Built by the U.K.-based robotics company Oshen, the four-foot-long uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs), known as C-Stars, have already proven useful this hurricane season. In late August, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in partnership with the University of Southern Mississippi and Oshen, launched five of them off the coast of the U.S. Virgin Islands to collect critical ocean and weather data. The goal: sharpen forecasts of where and how hurricanes form and how powerful they may become.
While the little red boats are still experimental, NOAA scientists say they may hold the key to understanding some of the ocean’s most destructive forces.
“Understanding weather conditions where the ocean surface meets the lower atmosphere is key to predicting hurricane intensity,” said Greg Foltz, an oceanographer with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory (AOML) in Miami. “If these miniature uncrewed surface vehicles prove reliable, they could become a critical piece of NOAA’s hurricane observing system in the future.”
NOAA has recently expanded its use of uncrewed aircraft and marine systems to gather time-sensitive data. Traditionally, much of that data has come from satellites or manned “hurricane hunter” flights. But small, expendable vessels like the C-Stars promise high-resolution measurements at a fraction of the cost—and without putting people at risk.
The C-Stars’ onboard sensors collect wind speed and direction, air and sea surface temperatures, surface salinity, significant wave height, humidity, air pressure and surface currents. The vessels are wind-powered, solar-equipped and satellite-connected, sending near-real-time streams of data back to NOAA. If necessary, small electric thrusters can reposition them into a storm’s path.
According to NOAA, the C-Stars will operate experimentally over the next two months, transmitting near-real-time data which will be automatically received, processed and distributed by PMEL to the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Telecommunications System, making it available to forecast centers globally.
Two more C-Stars are on standby in Gulfport, Mississippi, ready for deployment in the Gulf of Mexico during this fall’s storm season.
Unlike other USVs NOAA has tested in recent years, C-Stars are tiny—just one-sixth the size of earlier models. That compact design means they can be launched from small boats, including charters and even fishing vessels. Oshen describes this approach as a deliberate inversion of a trend toward increasingly large, complex and costly ocean robots.
“In a landscape that sees marine robots cram ever more sensors and grow increasingly complex, large and expensive, we seek to move in the opposite direction,” Oshen said in a company statement.
Instead of outfitting each craft with every possible sensor, the company focuses on a handful of essential instruments and deploys them in fleets. “By deploying constellations of C-Stars in precise areas at high spatial density, we collect ocean data at a granularity unattainable with other solutions,” the company noted.
That swarm strategy is promising. Oshen is currently deploying 50 C-Stars into the North Atlantic as part of the Forecasting Tipping Points program, funded by the U.K.-based Advanced Research and Invention Agency. The effort aims to capture ocean data crucial for predicting potential climate tipping points.
The C-Stars have been previously used in both the U.S. and Europe for climate monitoring and tracking marine mammals. But hurricanes pose an altogether different challenge.
“Although C-Stars have navigated storms with towering 24-foot waves, hurricanes are a whole new level of challenge—but if it works, the long-term potential is huge,” said Anahita Laverack, Oshen’s chief executive officer. “We believe that these new, small USVs can move the needle in how we observe and understand hurricanes, while keeping budgets under control.”
Leila Hamdan, associate vice president for research at the University of Southern Mississippi, said the university’s role in the project fits naturally. “We are excited by the role that C-Stars could play in improving hurricane forecasts, which have direct consequences for millions of people along the Gulf Coast,” Hamdan said. “The University of Southern Mississippi is a natural partner for this effort as we bring deep expertise in autonomous systems and a history of collaboration with Oshen and NOAA. We’re excited to test new ways to gather critical data for NOAA’s mission.”
NOAA officials say that uncrewed systems like the C-Stars act as “force multipliers” across its mission. The same kinds of platforms are already being used for seabed mapping, fishery stock assessments, emergency response and other tasks. But hurricanes obviously represent a more formidable force.
If the experiment succeeds, the payoff would be forecasts with sharper detail about storm intensity and movement—guidance that can save lives and billions of dollars in economic losses.
