Image

U Turn

August 6, 2014

It’s a kayak without a passenger, but not without a mission. JetYak is an autonomous, 11-foot,  gas-powered kayak developed by WHOI oceanographer Peter Traykovski, Hanu Singh, and colleagues for preprogrammed missions that include making measurements of the water surface and seafloor. It’s especially valuable for work in places that would be difficult or impractical for underwater vehicles such as shallow, sandy, and rapidly-shifting coastal areas. JetYak has also been used near Greenland’s glaciers to measure freshwater flow. (Photo by Ken Kostel, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)