IAP’s Solar-Powered Unmanned Surface Vehicle Actively Passes through the Center of typhoon Sinlaku (2020)

The solar-powered marine unmanned surface vehicle (USV) developed by the USV team of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics is a rugged, long-duration, and autonomous navigation vessel designed for the collection of long-range, continuous, real-time, meteorological and oceanographic measurements, especially under extreme sea conditions (sea state 6–7). These solar-powered USVs completed a long-term continuous navigation observation test over 26 days. During this time, they coordinated double-USV observations and actively navigated into the path of Typhoon Sinlaku (2020) before collecting data very close to its center during the 2020 USV South China Sea Typhoon Observation Experiment. Detailed high temporal resolution (1 min) real-time observations collected by the USV on the typhoon were used for operational typhoon forecasting and warning for the first time. As a mobile meteorological and oceanographic observation station capable of reliable, automated deployment, data collection, and transmission, such solar-powered USVs can replace traditional observation platforms to provide valuable real-time data for research, forecasting, and early warnings for potential marine meteorological disasters.