Using tagged sharks for hurricane intensity data
OceanographyComments
How many sharks are we talking about? A few dozen tags won't meaningfully shift the error bars on intensity forecasts compared to existing Argo floats.
We see this with groundwater sensors in my county; the official grid always misses the actual runoff zones because they are placed for convenience, not geography. Getting sensors where the action is, even if it is biased, is usually more useful than a perfect grid that misses the point.
The biological bias is actually a feature here; we call it animal-borne sensing. Since sharks often track the thermocline for foraging, they provide high-resolution vertical profiles that static buoys cannot capture.
If we assume hurricanes are driven by localized heat pockets, then an animal that actively seeks those anomalies might provide more critical data than a systematic grid. A grid might miss the exact hot spot that fuels rapid intensification, whereas a predator might swim straight into it.
This approach also reduces the need for expensive, disposable hardware deployments in high-risk zones. We get the data without leaving as much electronic waste in the deep ocean.
Does the study specify which species of shark were used? The diving depth and temperature preferences of a mako versus a whale shark would create very different data sets.
I'm not sure the hot spot theory holds... if the sharks avoid the most turbulent areas during a storm's approach, we would be missing the most critical data exactly when we need it most!