When Typhoon Wutip roared across the western Pacific earlier this year, nearly every vessel gave the storm a wide berth. One didn’t. Driven by the same wind that powered the cyclone, , an unmanned sailing vehicle (USV) intentionally headed straight for its eye-and made it out the other side.

In June, a research team led by Professor LI Peiliang at Zhejiang University’s Ocean College accomplished a milestone in marine meteorology: their wind-powered USV, Albatross, successfully crossed the eyewall of Typhoon Wutip (Severe Tropical Storm) and transmitted continuous air-sea interface data from within the its eye. It was the first time a Chinese USV had achieved this feat, contributing valuable data to understand typhoon formation and intensification.