Torpedo shaped machines known as Slocum ocean gliders travel anywhere from the ocean’s surface to more than 3,000 feet underwater, collecting critical data that not only improves forecasts but will ultimately help mitigate the damage and destruction from hurricanes.

“Hurricanes since 1980 have accounted for about $870 billion in damage, about 6.5 thousand deaths,” said Gerhard Kuska, the Executive Director of MARACOOS. “That’s actually over 50-percent of all the billion-dollar disasters.”

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