Underwater robot to explore ice-covered ocean in Antarctica

Washington, Oct 14 (ANI): An underwater robot is being deployed by researchers at the University of British Columbia to explore ice-covered ocean in Antarctica from October 17 through November 12.

Scientists predict that the sea ice area around Antarctica will be reduced by more than 33 per cent by 2100, accelerating the collapse of ice shelves. Up to hundreds of metres thick, ice shelves are floating platforms of ice that cover almost half of Antarctica's coastline.

The mission will study the effect of ice shelves on the mixing of sea water, and will provide critical data for the Antarctica 2010 Glacier Tongues and Ocean Mixing Research Project led by investigator Craig Stevens at the New Zealand National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research. The field site is located in New Zealand's Ross Dependency in Antarctica and the team includes scientists from New Zealand, Canada, the United States and France.

Until recently, scientists have had limited ability to access ice-covered waters, but the research team's use of a high-tech robot aims to change that.

"Findings from this study will be unique as there have only been a few under-ice AUV deployments globally, even fewer in the vicinity of ice shelves," says Assoc. Prof. Bernard Laval, who teaches civil engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science.

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), named UBC-Gavia, measures 2.5 metres long by half a metre wide and is equipped with temperature and salinity sensors, current meters, mapping sonar, a digital camera and water quality optical sensors. It will navigate the deep cold waters adjacent to, and possibly under, the floating 100-metre thick Erebus Glacier Tongue in McMurdo Sound, at a latitude of 77 degree south. (ANI)