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Three ocean drones were launched from Rhode Island Thursday and will travel along the Gulf Stream, collecting data in tough winter conditions that would be challenging for traditional ships with crews. Saildrone, headquartered in Alameda, California, makes autonomous surface vehicles powered by the wind and sun to measure climate quality data and do mapping in remote oceans for scientists worldwide.

The company launched the drones from Newport, Rhode Island, on a mission to sail the strong ocean currents in the North Atlantic for six months. The goal is to gather information that’s needed to improve medium and long-range weather forecasting, and to account for how much human-produced carbon dioxide the Gulf Stream can absorb.

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