Autonomous Underwater Glider Observations in Category 5 Hurricane Beryl

Tropical cyclones are the costliest and deadliest disasters globally, with impacts to coastal communities expected to increase. Autonomous platforms have emerged as a critical component of tropical cyclone observing systems to support operational Earth system modeling and forecasting. Since 2018 autonomous underwater gliders have carried out targeted deployments as part of the NOAA Hurricane Glider Program and Coordinated Hurricane Atmosphere Ocean Sampling project. The glider operator community has supported near real-time transmission and submission of all glider data to the Global Telecommunication System for assimilation into forecast systems, regardless of science mission. In June - July of 2024 glider RU29 captured data in advance of, throughout, and following the passage of Category 5 Hurricane Beryl in the central Caribbean Sea. It became   the furthest east formation of an Atlantic hurricane in the month of June. Hurricane Beryl underwent rapid intensification making it the first June Cat 4 storm on record, devastating the windward islands. As Beryl moved into the central Caribbean it rapidly intensified a third time and became the earliest Cat 5 storm on record. Glider RU29, equipped with a CTD, current profiler, and oxygen optode was rapidly re-positioned between Curaçao and the Dominican Republic to intersect the storm’s eye-center. RU29 started station-keeping 24 hours in advance of Beryl’s passage with 500 m dives to enable collection of hourly profiles. The eye of Beryl passed within 17 n mi of RU29, the closest approach of a Cat 5 tropical cyclone to an autonomous platform. In this presentation we will detail the glider mission, innovative piloting behaviors, operational data collection and usage, as well as preliminary analyses of the proximate upper ocean evolution during the storm event and advances through multiple collocations.

Presentation Preference: Either

Primary Presenter: Travis Miles, Rutgers (tnmiles@marine.rutgers.edu)

Authors:

Travis Miles, Rutgers University  (tnmiles@marine.rutgers.edu)