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Spying for Science: Unmanned Drones Hit the Arctic

Unmanned drones are everywhere now. We all know this. They’re soaring around Afghanistan shooting missiles at, and often missing, terrorists and people who happen to live near them. They’re commandeered by police precincts around the nation, who are...

Unmanned drones are everywhere now. We all know this. They’re soaring around Afghanistan shooting missiles at, and often missing, terrorists and people who happen to live near them. They’re commandeered by police precincts around the nation who deploy them for surveillance missions. There are some weird private sector applications too—they’re embraced, for instance, by creepy real estate agents, who uses them to take pictures of rich people’s homes. They also amuse people at tech expos. War, policing, commerce, entertainment. Drones do everything. Now, science.

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Researchers have taken to using unmanned drones to study wildlife. First up are the sea lions.

Live Science reports:

Since the 1970s, populations of Steller sea lions have dramatically declined in the western Aleutian Islands of Alaska, where they are protected under the Endangered Species Act. What exactly is responsible for the downturn is unknown, and is especially confounding given that sea lion populations to the southeast and in Russia are on the rise … To find out what factors might have affected the species, Walker and a team of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) researchers set out in March on a three-week cruise, using two unmanned aircraft for the first time to collect aerial data on the creatures. One, the Aeryon Scout, is a small, battery-powered, four-bladed helicopterlike aircraft with an on-board, sophisticated camera and video system.

The other is called the AreoVironment Puma AE and is a fixed-wing plane with a 10-foot (3 meters) wingspan, equipped with real-time video plus infrared and visual still photo capability.

Drones can evidently get closer to the wildlife populations, cover more ground, and send back more detailed data. They were used at 54 sites across the region.

This is probably the most constructive use of unmanned drone technology yet; that and the airborne wi-fi drone concept for revolutionary movements. So it’s nice to see that these souped up remote control airplanes at least have some capacity to improve our lives. Small consolation, maybe, but at least someday perhaps at least 1% of these things won’t be dropping bombs or spying on us.