Classifying Hurricanes with Natural Underwater Sound

Detecting and tracking hurricanes currently involves expensive `hurricane-hunting’ aircraft. The cost associated with this method of accurately assessing a hurricaneÌs destructive force means that much of the world, including the Pacific Ocean, is without coverage. Researchers are conducting tests with the Mexican Navy to test the hypothesis that inexpensive underwater acoustic measurements can be used to determine the wind speed of hurricanes, thereby classifying their destructive power with greater accuracy than standard satellite remote sensing techniques allow.