Is it a bird? Is it a fish? No, it’s a robot. Scientists are deploying silent gliding robots to swoosh beneath the ocean waves, recording the singing of whales, clicks of dolphins, pitter-pattering of raindrops, humming of ship motors and crashing of waves during a storm.
These new torpedo-shaped robots are remotely controlled by pilots, using satellite to communicate. They are about the same size as a small person and can dive to depths of 1,000 metres (3,300 feet) and travel the seas for months at a time.
Pierre Cauchy, a scientist at the University of East Anglia, has been experimenting with these robots for the past five years, testing their ability to record underwater noises in the Mediterranean Sea, north Atlantic Ocean and Southern Ocean.
“It is fascinating to listen in to underwater life such as long-finned pilot whales in the north Atlantic, but also to hear the echoes of what is happening in the skies above,” he says.
In remote ocean regions, where there are no permanent weather stations, the data recorded by the silent robots can be used to calculate surface wind speeds. This helps meteorologists assess how quickly a storm is whipping up and, for climatologists, the data is useful for fine-tuning their models.
• Kate Ravilious will be one of the panel of Weatherwatch contributors taking part in Freak Weather in History at the British Library on Wednesday 2 May, at 7pm
• This article was amended on Tuesday 24 April to correct a depth conversion.
