9 ms·

The date of the video is the most impressive to me here. It says “Sept. 30, 2021” both as the date of the article and the date of the video. If this is not a mi

The date of the video is the most impressive to me here. It says “Sept. 30, 2021” both as the date of the article and the date of the video. If this is not a mistake that means they managed to deliver the video from the hurricane to the internet in less than 24 hours. Why is this impressive? Either they beamed it out through satelites, which is notoriously hard from an unstable platform on big waves, or they recovered the saildrone and obtained the footage directly which is equally impressive in or around a hurricane. All around if the dating of the footage is correct it is very impressive to me.

Jenk 5y ago
I was just thinking to myself that maybe it's my age or something but the fact that I am sat a thousand miles away watching a video, on my phone, from inside a hurricane that was recorded, edited, and published all in less than a day, is one of those "I'm living in the future, aren't I?" Moments.
- dredmorbius 5y ago
  Watching dashcam video footage of the Chelyabinsk meteorite a few hours after it had first been reported, on my smartphone, sitting in the garage after a grocery run, was it for me.
  - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
    Watching it live was more impressive than videos, and the BOOM was really shaking. (I actually live in Chelyabinsk)
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      I prefer living in my future at a distance ;-) That must have been absolutely amazing. Did you see the initial airburst itself? What were your thoughts / how would you describe your reaction as the event unfolded?
      - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
        I saw part of the burst and to me it was immediately clear what it was. Also, the timing of the boom arrival helped determine the distance with good precision. Thoughts, 'WOW', 'COOL', 'Did somebody film that??', and, of course, the rest of the workday was not very productive. It was nice to see that so much footage made. One thing footage doesn't show is, however, the heat: the radiation was intense and open parts of the skin did feel hot, like , REALLLY BURNING HOT. Had it lasted longer, there would be burns on everybody.
        dredmorbius 5y ago
        I've seen estimates of the Chelyabinsk energy yield at about 500 kT TNT equivalent. How that was distributed as light, shock wave, and thermal energy (latter coupled with light) has been something I'd wondered at, and your comment on the heat is interesting. I'd think that a larger impactor or one that survived further into Earth's atmosphere (and closer to the surface) might have changed that experience markedly. You're informing my own advice-to-self as to how to respond should I see a very large airburst at some point. "Stay away from glass" was already part of that, as well as "expect the shockwave after about 90 seconds". I think I'll add "avoid direct thermal exposure if it looks to be large" to the list. If you've not already seen the Sandia Labs modelling based on the 1908 Tunguska event, the shockwave dynamics suggest to me why and how the multiple shockwave arrivals at a given point on the ground occur: https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/releases/2007/asteroid.html https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/releases/2007/asteroid.html Particularly this simulation: http://www.sandia.gov/videos2007/2007-6514Pfire.hv1.1.mpg http://www.sandia.gov/videos2007/2007-6514Pfire.hv1.1.mpg
        HPsquared 5y ago
        "Resist the urge to stare at it through the window"
        jacquesm 5y ago
        The one reason Halifax has such a large amount of expertise on eye surgery was people not resisting that urge.
  - pwg 5y ago
    In my case, it was seeing the photos of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9's [1] impact with Jupiter on the web very soon after the impact date (latency was but a few days if memory serves, date was July 1994). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9
    - dredmorbius 5y ago
      There were some earlier moments for me as well. Being impacted by the Morris Worm, and having a (text-based) copy of the Pons-Fleischman paper, both circa 1988, via the uni Unix server, was pretty cool. But Chelyabinsk was a massively-shared instance, where a random news event in a place that was absolutely not a media centre, was still accessible in very short order with multiple coverages. Sci-Hub / LibGen give a similar feeling, though in a different sense. Wells's World Brain and Bush's Memex, delivered. Even if the Establishment is being dragged kicking and screaming.
- usrusr 5y ago
  For me it was "so I'm living in the future, and look how relatively boring it is". Boring compared to the wild storm chaser fantasies of Bruce Sterling, and fortunately boring. But well, there are still ten years to go until 2031, let's hope we still won't be enticed to think about an F-6 by then...
- thuccess129 5y ago
  The stream had no audio and my brainchip implant couldn't feel me the salty smell of the sea and the blast of wind on my face.
- kzrdude 5y ago
  One thing I usually highlight about the Moon Landing (1969) is that the delivered not just people on the moon, but it was broadcast live! We can still appreciate that as a mind-blowing achievement! And it might put a damper on the enthusiasm for a delayed video of a wet drone.. :)
  - dzhiurgis 5y ago
    Up until recently there were more people on moon than single handed non stop circumnavigations
    - spurgu 5y ago
      I find this hard to believe. There have must've been 1-2 dozen solo circumnavigators in the 70's already.. how many people have been on the moon? quick search Apparently only 12 people have walked on the moon (24 total have "been to the moon")and I'd venture a guess that we hit that amount of solo circumnavigators in the 60's already thanks to the OSTAR.
- davidw 5y ago
  My wife was hiking in the high mountains here in Oregon, above 2000 meters, and received a video call from her mom who was in Florence, Italy. I am old enough to remember rotary phones and I am not that old.
  - LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
    Sitting in the Intercity Express, not on one of it's maiden (record) runs, but right when they went into public service, or very shortly before that on a promotion, on the new high speed track between Cologne and Frankfurt. Gently sloped up- and downhill, sometimes right next and parallel to the Autobahn A3. At 331 to 333 kph. Not shaking at all, and relatively silent. Looking out of the window, seeing Porsches, Mercedes-Benz, BMW trying to overtake slower traffic permanently blinking left, flashing their lights. Appearing almost stationary. Thinking: Who needs Transrapid?
- rnjesus 5y ago
  about a year and a half ago i had the exact same thought, only i was watching a live stream on my phone of the iss crew doing an eva to repair a component. i was genuinely awestruck at the fact that i could see humans servicing a space station — live — whilst i was on the toilet.
  - m4rtink 5y ago
    Even better watch the stream on a phone or tablet while watching the ISS fly overhead. There is something about watching humans working on that bright star flying overhead live on a device in your hand. :)
krasin 5y ago
Based on the photo from the NASA website ([1]), they use a Thales Satellite modem ([2]). My best guess it's VesseLINK 700 ([3]) that uses Iridium Certus constellation ([4]) and costs around $8K ([5]). Key Features: * Robust, Light-Weight Communications for at Sea Operations * Certus 700 Services (352 kbps Up/704 kbps Down & 256 kbps Streaming Capable) *100% Global Satellite Coverage and Low Latency for Critical Data and Voice Communications 1. https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/wp-content/uploads/sites/257/2021/09/upload_4025b5e6ee7d9ff779c621aa07750b07-scaled.jpeg https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/wp-content/uploads/s... 2. https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/market-specific-solutions/mobile-satellite-services/vesselink https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/market-specific-solut... 3. https://www.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/database/document/2021-02/VesseLINK%20September%202020.pdf https://www.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/database/doc... 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio... 5. https://seatech.systems/product/thales-vesselink-700-for-iridium-certus/ https://seatech.systems/product/thales-vesselink-700-for-iri...
- willis936 5y ago
  Jeez. When I work with Iridium I'm constrained to 300 byte messages (for budgetary reasons).
  - krasin 5y ago
    Yes, me too. But Iridium recently (2017-2018) launched the new constellation that they call Iridium NEXT which supports L-Band and offers significantly more bandwidth. So, it's now possible to get a 1GB plan for ~$1300/month ([2]). This obvisouly means that one needs to use a different modem. RockBLOCK modems are great but limited to the Iridium "Classic" with these tight limits and insane prices (~$1/KB). 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#Next-generation_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio... 2. https://www.satphonestore.com/tech-browsing/satellite-internet-marine/iridium-certus/airtime-maritime.html https://www.satphonestore.com/tech-browsing/satellite-intern...
  - walrus01 5y ago
metaphor 5y ago
All that...by a US federal agency. Respect.
- krasin 5y ago
  Saildrone is a startup; its primary customer is NOAA, the US Federal agency in the question. From my impressions, NOAA is a very useful agency that delivers on its mission pretty well. But I never interacted with them directly.
  - hyper_dynamics 5y ago
    I do and it's true!
  - hparadiz 5y ago
    Their forecasts are used by basically all the news reports in the entire country. They might actually have the most direct effect on your life of any agency out there. When there is a warning or watch it's basically their call.
    - metaphor 5y ago
      Something about NOAA brushing shoulders with what could have been existential disaster[1] to the detriment of the public, only to resume their mission of diving head first into natural ones supported by the first-to-market ethos of a modern startup has poetic justice vibes to it. A win for both Saildrone and the general public at large. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...
  - i_am_proteus 5y ago
    NOAA's most obvious citizen-facing product for me has been the National Hurricane Center. Right here is a link to the web site: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ Their forecasting graphics (probability distributions of tropical cyclone tracks, wind speeds, rainfall, et cetera, all overlaid on maps) are direct and easy-to-read, and do a good job of conveying the uncertainty of the behavior of these storms in a way that's legible to a lay person.
CerealFounder 5y ago
Hijacking: Can someone ELI5 me why two pockets of differing air temperature create such violent weather patterns? It feels like dark magic.

Jenk 5y ago

I was just thinking to myself that maybe it's my age or something but the fact that I am sat a thousand miles away watching a video, on my phone, from inside a hurricane that was recorded, edited, and published all in less than a day, is one of those "I'm living in the future, aren't I?" Moments.

dredmorbius 5y ago
Watching dashcam video footage of the Chelyabinsk meteorite a few hours after it had first been reported, on my smartphone, sitting in the garage after a grocery run, was it for me.
- Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
  Watching it live was more impressive than videos, and the BOOM was really shaking. (I actually live in Chelyabinsk)
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    I prefer living in my future at a distance ;-) That must have been absolutely amazing. Did you see the initial airburst itself? What were your thoughts / how would you describe your reaction as the event unfolded?
    - Andrew_nenakhov 5y ago
      I saw part of the burst and to me it was immediately clear what it was. Also, the timing of the boom arrival helped determine the distance with good precision. Thoughts, 'WOW', 'COOL', 'Did somebody film that??', and, of course, the rest of the workday was not very productive. It was nice to see that so much footage made. One thing footage doesn't show is, however, the heat: the radiation was intense and open parts of the skin did feel hot, like , REALLLY BURNING HOT. Had it lasted longer, there would be burns on everybody.
      - dredmorbius 5y ago
        I've seen estimates of the Chelyabinsk energy yield at about 500 kT TNT equivalent. How that was distributed as light, shock wave, and thermal energy (latter coupled with light) has been something I'd wondered at, and your comment on the heat is interesting. I'd think that a larger impactor or one that survived further into Earth's atmosphere (and closer to the surface) might have changed that experience markedly. You're informing my own advice-to-self as to how to respond should I see a very large airburst at some point. "Stay away from glass" was already part of that, as well as "expect the shockwave after about 90 seconds". I think I'll add "avoid direct thermal exposure if it looks to be large" to the list. If you've not already seen the Sandia Labs modelling based on the 1908 Tunguska event, the shockwave dynamics suggest to me why and how the multiple shockwave arrivals at a given point on the ground occur: https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/releases/2007/asteroid.html https://newsreleases.sandia.gov/releases/2007/asteroid.html Particularly this simulation: http://www.sandia.gov/videos2007/2007-6514Pfire.hv1.1.mpg http://www.sandia.gov/videos2007/2007-6514Pfire.hv1.1.mpg
        HPsquared 5y ago
        "Resist the urge to stare at it through the window"
        jacquesm 5y ago
        The one reason Halifax has such a large amount of expertise on eye surgery was people not resisting that urge.
- pwg 5y ago
  In my case, it was seeing the photos of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9's [1] impact with Jupiter on the web very soon after the impact date (latency was but a few days if memory serves, date was July 1994). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker%E2%80%93Levy_9
  - dredmorbius 5y ago
    There were some earlier moments for me as well. Being impacted by the Morris Worm, and having a (text-based) copy of the Pons-Fleischman paper, both circa 1988, via the uni Unix server, was pretty cool. But Chelyabinsk was a massively-shared instance, where a random news event in a place that was absolutely not a media centre, was still accessible in very short order with multiple coverages. Sci-Hub / LibGen give a similar feeling, though in a different sense. Wells's World Brain and Bush's Memex, delivered. Even if the Establishment is being dragged kicking and screaming.
usrusr 5y ago
For me it was "so I'm living in the future, and look how relatively boring it is". Boring compared to the wild storm chaser fantasies of Bruce Sterling, and fortunately boring. But well, there are still ten years to go until 2031, let's hope we still won't be enticed to think about an F-6 by then...
thuccess129 5y ago
The stream had no audio and my brainchip implant couldn't feel me the salty smell of the sea and the blast of wind on my face.
kzrdude 5y ago
One thing I usually highlight about the Moon Landing (1969) is that the delivered not just people on the moon, but it was broadcast live! We can still appreciate that as a mind-blowing achievement! And it might put a damper on the enthusiasm for a delayed video of a wet drone.. :)
- dzhiurgis 5y ago
  Up until recently there were more people on moon than single handed non stop circumnavigations
  - spurgu 5y ago
    I find this hard to believe. There have must've been 1-2 dozen solo circumnavigators in the 70's already.. how many people have been on the moon? quick search Apparently only 12 people have walked on the moon (24 total have "been to the moon")and I'd venture a guess that we hit that amount of solo circumnavigators in the 60's already thanks to the OSTAR.
davidw 5y ago
My wife was hiking in the high mountains here in Oregon, above 2000 meters, and received a video call from her mom who was in Florence, Italy. I am old enough to remember rotary phones and I am not that old.
- LargoLasskhyfv 5y ago
  Sitting in the Intercity Express, not on one of it's maiden (record) runs, but right when they went into public service, or very shortly before that on a promotion, on the new high speed track between Cologne and Frankfurt. Gently sloped up- and downhill, sometimes right next and parallel to the Autobahn A3. At 331 to 333 kph. Not shaking at all, and relatively silent. Looking out of the window, seeing Porsches, Mercedes-Benz, BMW trying to overtake slower traffic permanently blinking left, flashing their lights. Appearing almost stationary. Thinking: Who needs Transrapid?
rnjesus 5y ago
about a year and a half ago i had the exact same thought, only i was watching a live stream on my phone of the iss crew doing an eva to repair a component. i was genuinely awestruck at the fact that i could see humans servicing a space station — live — whilst i was on the toilet.
- m4rtink 5y ago
  Even better watch the stream on a phone or tablet while watching the ISS fly overhead. There is something about watching humans working on that bright star flying overhead live on a device in your hand. :)

krasin 5y ago

Based on the photo from the NASA website ([1]), they use a Thales Satellite modem ([2]). My best guess it's VesseLINK 700 ([3]) that uses Iridium Certus constellation ([4]) and costs around $8K ([5]). Key Features: * Robust, Light-Weight Communications for at Sea Operations * Certus 700 Services (352 kbps Up/704 kbps Down & 256 kbps Streaming Capable) *100% Global Satellite Coverage and Low Latency for Critical Data and Voice Communications 1. https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/wp-content/uploads/sites/257/2021/09/upload_4025b5e6ee7d9ff779c621aa07750b07-scaled.jpeg https://blogs.nasa.gov/earthexpeditions/wp-content/uploads/s... 2. https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/market-specific-solutions/mobile-satellite-services/vesselink https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/markets/market-specific-solut... 3. https://www.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/database/document/2021-02/VesseLINK%20September%202020.pdf https://www.thalesgroup.com/sites/default/files/database/doc... 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio... 5. https://seatech.systems/product/thales-vesselink-700-for-iridium-certus/ https://seatech.systems/product/thales-vesselink-700-for-iri...

willis936 5y ago
Jeez. When I work with Iridium I'm constrained to 300 byte messages (for budgetary reasons).
- krasin 5y ago
  Yes, me too. But Iridium recently (2017-2018) launched the new constellation that they call Iridium NEXT which supports L-Band and offers significantly more bandwidth. So, it's now possible to get a 1GB plan for ~$1300/month ([2]). This obvisouly means that one needs to use a different modem. RockBLOCK modems are great but limited to the Iridium "Classic" with these tight limits and insane prices (~$1/KB). 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellation#Next-generation_constellation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_satellite_constellatio... 2. https://www.satphonestore.com/tech-browsing/satellite-internet-marine/iridium-certus/airtime-maritime.html https://www.satphonestore.com/tech-browsing/satellite-intern...
- walrus01 5y ago

metaphor 5y ago

All that...by a US federal agency. Respect.

krasin 5y ago
Saildrone is a startup; its primary customer is NOAA, the US Federal agency in the question. From my impressions, NOAA is a very useful agency that delivers on its mission pretty well. But I never interacted with them directly.
- hyper_dynamics 5y ago
  I do and it's true!
- hparadiz 5y ago
  Their forecasts are used by basically all the news reports in the entire country. They might actually have the most direct effect on your life of any agency out there. When there is a warning or watch it's basically their call.
  - metaphor 5y ago
    Something about NOAA brushing shoulders with what could have been existential disaster[1] to the detriment of the public, only to resume their mission of diving head first into natural ones supported by the first-to-market ethos of a modern startup has poetic justice vibes to it. A win for both Saildrone and the general public at large. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-pick-to-lead-weather-agency-spent-30-years-fighting-it https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...
- i_am_proteus 5y ago
  NOAA's most obvious citizen-facing product for me has been the National Hurricane Center. Right here is a link to the web site: https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ Their forecasting graphics (probability distributions of tropical cyclone tracks, wind speeds, rainfall, et cetera, all overlaid on maps) are direct and easy-to-read, and do a good job of conveying the uncertainty of the behavior of these storms in a way that's legible to a lay person.

CerealFounder 5y ago

Hijacking: Can someone ELI5 me why two pockets of differing air temperature create such violent weather patterns? It feels like dark magic.