The vessel has been purchased by the Barbados Meteorological Services (BMS) and will be used to provide data to assist with Hurricane tracking.
Today, Wilfred Abrahams Minister of Home Affairs, Information and Public Affairs, will unveil the AutoNaut ‘’The Wilfred Ocean Hunter’’.
‘’The Wilfred Ocean Hunter’’ is one of four AutoNaut vessels purchased by the Barbados Meteorological Services fitted with the most innovative and up-to-date sensors. Providing real time data over satellite.
The sensors on board will provide the scientists at BMS with humidity, conductivity, temperature, depth, wind and wave data. This will allow the scientist to monitor and observe the changes as different weather patterns approach the island of Barbados. Sabu Best, the Director of BMS states ‘’We are using the AutoNauts to provide real time meteorological data. Enabling us to better predict the path and strength of a storm.’’
The AutoNaut USV will be deployed from Barbados and will track tropical storms. The data collected by the USV will be transmitted to meteorologists at the BMS. The BMS will use this data to improve their forecasting of future storm intensities, direction and providing timely warnings to the public.
The deployment of the AutoNaut USV is part of a larger effort to improve the understanding of tropical storms and to better predict their impact.
