The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched five small, uncrewed research vessels off the U.S. Virgin Islands to better understand how hurricanes develop and behave.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched a series of small, robotic water craft to study the formation and behavior of hurricanes. Photo courtesy of Oshen UPI

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has launched five small, uncrewed research vessels off the U.S. Virgin Islands to better understand how hurricanes develop and behave.

"The deployment is the latest effort by NOAA to advance data collection to improve hurricane research and forecasting, " NOAA said in a statement Wednesday.

NOAA is partnering with the University of Southern Mississippi and the robotics company Oshen in the research effort.

The group is planning to launch additional robotic vessels, known as C-Stars, this fall ahead of any hurricanes that may develop.

Researchers say if vessels prove reliable, they could be an important part of the effort to understand and observe hurricanes in the future.

"Understanding weather conditions where the ocean surface meets the lower atmosphere is key to predicting hurricane intensity," said Greg Foltz, an oceanographer with NOAA's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.

The uncrewed, robotic water vessels are the next step in NOAA's work to understand the storms. The administration has been using crewed aircraft and other marine systems to collect data to help predict and understand hurricanes.

The C-Stars are wind powered using energy from onboard solar sensors and equipped with small motor thrusters for exact positioning. They collect and transmit data back to researchers who produce high-resolution images and videos to study.

Scientists are already using uncrewed vessels and other technology for seabed mapping, marine mammal and fish stock assessments, emergency responses to assessing tornado damage, and forecasting algal blooms and hypoxia.