A multi-band cloud observation unmanned boat recently sailed into the Yellow Sea from the Maritime Safety Administration supervision base in Lianyungang, Jiangsu Province, and successfully carried out stereoscopic observation of sea clouds and fog, sailing 110 nautical miles and lasting 16 hours. This is the first time for China's independently developed meteorological unmanned boat to carry out a long voyage observation test, indicating that it has initially possessed the capability of large-scale meteorological and hydrological observation at sea.

The coastal areas are in the alternation of land and sea, the climate is changeable, the natural disasters are frequent, among which the sea fog disaster has a great impact on human activities. The existing sea fog observation stations in China are concentrated near the coast, and the detection range is only ten kilometers. In order to better obtain key information such as cloud and sea fog changes, meteorological unmanned boats equipped with special observation equipment need to collect observation data in the farther sea area. However, in the past, most of the small unmanned boats can only observe near the shore, and the requirements for sea conditions are higher, in order to expand the field of observation, the meteorological detection center of the China Meteorological Administration (hereinafter referred to as the "detection center") led the national key research and development program "development and demonstration application of Marine multi-band cloud observation equipment". Unmanned weather boats developed under this program can now navigate autonomously and safely - that is, obtain multiple types of information through continuous observation. The ship has high maneuverability and strong autonomous navigation ability, and can reach the designated sensitive areas and key areas to complete long endurance detection, and the observation range is extended to about 180 nautical miles (330 kilometers) from the shore.

The unmanned meteorological boat is equipped with Marine multi-band cloud observation equipment developed by nine units, including the detection Center and the 716 Research Institute of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, Chengdu University of Information Technology, the National Space Science Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the National Meteorological Center. When high-impact weather occurs at sea, unmanned boats equipped with multi-band cloud observation equipment can be directed to the target area according to the observation needs of weather affected areas and sensitive forecast areas to carry out multi-factor meteorological observation such as cloud height, cloud cover, sea fog, visibility, sea surface temperature, sea salt, etc., or coordinate observation with meteorological satellites and shore-based radars. Expand the observation area and improve the accuracy.