Rapid response buoy array airdropped to sample Hurricane Idalia

On Monday, August 28th, the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Scientific Development Squadron (VXS-1) airdropped 18 buoys in the path of Hurricane Idalia. The buoys were associated with the Task 3A teams of the NOPP Hurricane Coastal Impacts project: Spotter buoys (Sofar Ocean), microSWIFTs (University of Washington Applied Physics Laboratory), and A-DWSDs (Lagrangian Drifter Laboratory). The airdrop deployment, which is the first of up to three planned for the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season, enabled key observations of Hurricane Idalia as it made landfall on Wednesday, August 30th. These observations will be used to validate and improve forecasts of landfalling hurricanes, as well as further fundamental research of air-sea interactions during extreme events.

Above, we show the drift track for each buoy, colored by observed significant wave height, from August 28th to September 1st.

Update by Team: Thomson on September 7, 2023

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