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Robot to explore Antarctic seabed
London, Mar 04: A robot has been assigned the task of breaching the unexplored pockets of the sea beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica, one of the last unknown regions of the world.
London, Mar 04: A robot has been assigned the task of breaching the unexplored pockets of the sea beneath the ice shelves of Antarctica, one of the last unknown regions of the world.
An autonomous underwater vehicle called Autosub will travel through the Amundsen Sea under the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf and gather data for four projects sponsored by the Natural Environment Resource Council. The aim is to understand the interactions between the glacier and the ocean, which may reveal the effects of global warming on the Antarctic region, says a report in Nature. "I've always thought that underneath ice shelves would be wonderful places to use Autosub," says oceanographer Keith Nicholls of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
"You can get a huge amount of data over a large area in a short time." The Pine Island Glacier, one of the most dynamic and fast-moving Antarctic glaciers, sends more than 69 cubic km of ice per year into the Amundsen Sea. In November 2001, an iceberg the size of New York City (some 714 square kilometres) broke off after a crack had spread across the glacier in 2000.
Satellite data revealed thinning of the ice shelf during the 1990s. But the conditions and terrain are so treacherous that collecting data at the surface, even using tethered robotic vehicles, is too dangerous. The melting of the freshwater glacier affects its stability and influences ocean circulation and temperature, and thence climate.
Autosub is programmed to navigate through a cavity that runs for several hundred kilometres between the ice shelf and the sea floor. It will use simple logic software to get itself out of jams. Powered by 5,160 D-size batteries, the vehicle can run for 500 kilometres, covering this distance in roughly 3.5 days.
An autonomous underwater vehicle called Autosub will travel through the Amundsen Sea under the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf and gather data for four projects sponsored by the Natural Environment Resource Council. The aim is to understand the interactions between the glacier and the ocean, which may reveal the effects of global warming on the Antarctic region, says a report in Nature. "I've always thought that underneath ice shelves would be wonderful places to use Autosub," says oceanographer Keith Nicholls of the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge.
"You can get a huge amount of data over a large area in a short time." The Pine Island Glacier, one of the most dynamic and fast-moving Antarctic glaciers, sends more than 69 cubic km of ice per year into the Amundsen Sea. In November 2001, an iceberg the size of New York City (some 714 square kilometres) broke off after a crack had spread across the glacier in 2000.
Satellite data revealed thinning of the ice shelf during the 1990s. But the conditions and terrain are so treacherous that collecting data at the surface, even using tethered robotic vehicles, is too dangerous. The melting of the freshwater glacier affects its stability and influences ocean circulation and temperature, and thence climate.
Autosub is programmed to navigate through a cavity that runs for several hundred kilometres between the ice shelf and the sea floor. It will use simple logic software to get itself out of jams. Powered by 5,160 D-size batteries, the vehicle can run for 500 kilometres, covering this distance in roughly 3.5 days.
It will measure water salinity, temperature and current, as well as mapping the sea floor and the bottom of the ice. It will also collect water samples for testing back in the lab. The researchers reckon they have a one-in-four chance of losing Autosub on this expedition.
With a vehicle that cost well over a million dollars, that's a big chance to take - so big that insuring it would cost almost as much as building a second one. With two more major Autosub projects scheduled for the next two years, the team has built a second vehicle, just in case.
Bureau Report