Saildrone NOAA Saildrone Videos Purpose Stats

[Steadman Uhlich]

This thread is started to provide some information about the NOAA Saildrones

Here are some videos which give views of the NOAA Saildrones in action and their purpose (marine research, fisheries research, oceanography).

Noteworthy facts:

LOA = 19ft
Beam = 7 ft
Height = 20ft
Construction is Carbon Fiber

In development for 10 years.
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This video gives a quick overview of the drone size and mission. Video Length 1 minute.
https://youtu.be/wbt1yM5BNB0

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This video is lengthy (39 minutes) and is an official NOAA presentation about the Saildrone program "kickoff" and is recent 2016. Mostly focused on fisheries research in Alaska
https://youtu.be/EholPRD-UJ4

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This video shows the track of two drones on a fisheries mission in 2015. (NOTE: it has annoying music track, so you might want to mute sound).

https://youtu.be/JjYgLjWIgTI

This video shows that two drones were used in the waters off the Aleution Islands (Alaska) to search for fish. During that mission, the drones were at sea for 97 days and then returned (autonomously) to the same dock for recovery. One of the drones sailed 4393 nm during its mission.