--- title: "China Built a Robot Submarine to Shoot Rockets Into Typhoons" description: "Chinese scientists built a robot submarine designed to travel into storms to fire meteorological rockets that will collect data from the atmosphere." date: "2019-02-01" modified: "2019-02-01" authors: - name: "Jon Christian" job_title: "Executive Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/jonc" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/robot-submarine-shoot-typhoons" categories: - "Robotics" - "Robots and Machines" tags: - "china" - "ocean" - "submarine" - "the digest" - "weather" --- # China Built a Robot Submarine to Shoot Rockets Into Typhoons ![Chinese scientists built a robot submarine designed to travel into storms to fire meteorological rockets that will collect data from the atmosphere.]() *\Image: Siping Zheng\* ## Robot Submarine Chinese scientists built an autonomous submarine designed to travel into storms — including deadly typhoons — in order to fire off meteorological rockets that will collect data from the atmosphere. "The unmanned semi-submersible vehicle is an ideal platform for marine meteorological environmental monitoring, and the atmospheric profile information provided by \[meteorological rockets\] launched from this platform can improve the accuracy of numerical weather forecasts at sea and in coastal zones," Chinese Academy of Sciences researcher Jun Li said in a [press release](). ## Typhoon Shooter Initial trials of the hardy submersible boat, which is painted a peppy orange color, are described in a [new paper]() in the journal *Advances in Atmospheric Sciences*. The meteorological missiles that the boat launches are a key part of the project. According to the paper, they collect detailed "vertical profiles" of the pressure, temperature, humidity, and wind in a storm — an environment too hazardous for regular observation by aircraft or weather balloons. ## Storm Chaser Researchers behind the project framed it as a successor to Argo, the global network of floating buoys that relay data about the temperature and currents of the oceans — but that uses new tech to collect unprecedented data from the atmosphere above the ocean as well as within it. "Launched from a long-duration unmanned semi-submersible vehicle, with strong mobility and large coverage of the sea area, \[meteorological rockets\] can be used under severe sea conditions and will be more economical and applicable in the future," researcher Hongbin Chen said in the same press release. **READ MORE:** [China Launched World's First Rocket-Deployed Weather Instruments From Unmanned Semi-Submersible Vehicle]() \[*EurekAlert*\] ***More on robot boats:*** [The U.S. Navy Wants to Roll out Autonomous Killer Robot Ships]() ## Author I'm responsible for editing, assigning, and scouting at Futurism, as well as occasionally writing for the site. That work involves keeping an eye on a wide range of narratives and issues, but over the past few years I've become increasingly interested in how AI is shaping the future of media, the web, and information itself. My day-to-day often involves collaborating on reporting and commentary projects bylined by my colleagues, but I try to find time to do my own reporting as well; stories I've broken for Futurism have been cited by publications including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Wired, Ars Technica, New York Magazine, the Columbia Journalism Review, Bloomberg, and more. I grew up in Southern Vermont and attended Vanderbilt University. Prior to Futurism, I contributed to outlets including the Boston Globe, Vice, Wired, Slate, the Atlantic, the Outline, Ars Technica and more, and did stints in farming and food service. I currently live in Brooklyn, New York, and in my free time I enjoy pinball, word games, cycling, running, and music production. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()