The drone will collect weather data like temperature, air pressure, and humidity. NASA is using a drone to track Hurricane Matthew. The space agency said Friday that it is flying a Global Hawk drone over huge storm swirls near Florida’s northeast coast. The aircraft weighs nearly 15,000 pounds, has a wingspan of 140 feet, and can fly for 30-plus hours at over 60,000 feet, according to a U.S. Air Force fact sheet . To capture weather data like temperature, air pressure, and humidity, the drone dropped several devices called dropsondes that collect information as they fall from the sky, NASA said. Small parachutes attached to the dropsondes keep them from breaking apart when they hit the ocean or ground at the end of their descent. Get Data Sheet , Fortune’s technology newsletter. NASA explained that the dropsondes can send weather data in real-time to the National Hurricane Center in Florida, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and other organizations worldwide that forecast weather. The drone flight is part of the NOAA’s Sensing Hazards with Operational Unmanned Technology research program for testing whether drones can assist satellites in collecting weather data. NASA said this is the second year of the […]
