Not AI, this is the new generation of storm forecasting 'experts'

According to the Washington Post , researchers are turning sharks into mobile "marine surveillance devices" by attaching sensors to their dorsal fins.

As sharks swim in the ocean, they collect temperature data and other information, which is used to predict the strength and trajectory of Atlantic hurricanes.

The initiative comes as the Trump administration cuts staff and funding at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), hampering the agency’s ability to predict hurricanes. Sharks won’t replace human forecasters entirely, but they could add to the stream of valuable data.

Key to Storm Prediction

“The ocean is so vast, so vast, that most of it is inaccessible. But by equipping animals that live out there, you can essentially turn them into ocean sensors that are constantly collecting data,” said Aaron Carlisle, a marine ecologist at the University of Delaware who is leading the project using sharks to collect data.

Hurricanes form when the atmosphere draws heat from the water, causing the air to rise and form clouds that bring heavy rain. So measuring the distribution of heat in the ocean is key to predicting where storms will go and how strong they will be.

“The ocean is the heat engine of hurricanes. If they intensify, they usually move over warm water. If they move over cold water, they weaken,” said Travis Miles, a physical oceanographer at Rutgers University.

As sharks swim in the ocean, they collect temperature data and other information that is used to predict the strength and trajectory of Atlantic hurricanes. Photo: Alex Kydd.

In fact, measuring the temperature of the Atlantic at different depths is no easy task. Weather satellites cannot see through the ocean surface, where the Atlantic often hides cooler waters.

Meanwhile, the buoys and robotic gliders that meteorologists deploy to measure subsurface temperatures move slowly and are expensive to operate, leaving large data gaps in the vast ocean.

“The scale of the ocean is so big and so vast that we really have a lot of gaps in places where we need more observations,” Miles added, noting that the lack of data is particularly acute in hurricane-prone waters in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and off the East Coast.

Natural "sea keeper"

Since technology cannot be deployed, various animals have been used by researchers as "sea guardians".

For years, researchers have attached temperature- and other-conditions monitoring devices to southern elephant seals in Antarctica and narwhal whales in the Arctic, in hard-to-reach polar regions. Russia has even tried to “recruit” dolphins and beluga whales as intelligence-gathering assets.

Now, to gather intelligence in the Atlantic, Carlisle and his colleagues are turning to sharks.

“Sharks are faster than robotic gliders and they can stay out at sea for longer periods of time. So the hope is that we can have these sharks out at sea and work in tandem with existing monitoring devices,” said Caroline Wiernicki, a shark ecologist and PhD student working with Carlisle.

In May, the team dropped baited hooks and frozen bait blocks from a boat about 50 miles offshore, creating a trail of oil. “It creates a scent trail. Any sharks that come across it get suspicious and start following it,” Carlisle said.

The team then captured two shortfin sharks and attached sensors to their dorsal fins to measure the temperature, salinity and depth of the ocean water. The sharks were chosen because they regularly surface, allowing the tags to transmit information to satellites.

The team attached sensors to the sharks' dorsal fins to measure the temperature, salinity and depth of the seawater. Photo: Frazer McGregor.

However, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, the shortfin shark is at risk of extinction due to overfishing, so the researchers are being cautious and do not want the sensors to have many harmful effects.

“We do everything we can to minimize the impact of puncturing an animal’s fin. We all love animals and don’t want to harm them,” Carlisle said.

So far, one of the sharks has transmitted temperature data to the researchers. Unfortunately, the other has been swimming in water too shallow for the sensor to turn on. “Every time we put one out, we learn something new, and it’s a debugging exercise,” Wiernicki said.

The plan now is to tag dozens of sharks each year with data, with the goal of feeding the data into existing hurricane-prediction computer models so they can make more accurate forecasts, Wiernicki said.

In addition to the shortfin shark, the team also captured and attached a satellite tag to a great white shark to track its location, but not temperature readings.

The species is also a candidate for use as a weather monitoring device. The team also hopes to try tagging other species, including hammerhead sharks and whale sharks.

“The more data we have, the better,” said Il Trepanier, a professor at Louisiana State University who specializes in hurricane climatology.

Source: https://znews.vn/khong-phai-ai-day-moi-la-chuyen-gia-du-bao-bao-the-he-moi-post1571204.html