B.B.C. Article
A novel autonomous sub has acquired the first detailed, high-resolution 3D maps of Antarctic sea ice.


Hanumant Singh and his WHOI colleagues developed the underwater robot

Released from a ship, the vehicle criss-crossed the underside of the floes, using upward-looking sonar to measure their shape.
The researchers involved in the project tell the journal Nature Geoscience that the thickness of the pack ice was greater than they had anticipated.
But they also caution against making generalisations from limited sampling.
Antarctic sea ice at its peak extent can cover 20 million square km; the research team on the other hand looked at just six small boxes some 500m along the square.
Nonetheless, the UK/US/Australia group got its proof-of-principle Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) into previously hard-to-reach places.

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