Underwater Robot Collects Unprecedented Data Beneath Antarctic Ice

Thanks to an underwater survey robot, oceanographers are getting the first-ever readings collected from underneath East Antarctica's vast ice shelves. The autonomous device, part of the ongoing Argo survey project, has spent over two-and-a-half years drifting through roughly 186 miles of frigid ocean currents.

It amassed almost 200 reports containing data on water temperature, pressure, salinity, oxygen, pH, and nitrate levels. At one point, it journeyed underneath the Denman and Shackleton Ice Shelves, spending the next eight months collecting readings from a never-accessed region of the planet.

These unprecedented observations provide new insights into the vulnerability of the ice shelves, according to Steve Rintoul, an oceanographer with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization.

The findings, detailed in a study published in the journal Science Advances, reinforce and update our understanding of ice shelf health. The Shackleton Ice Shelf remains unexposed to warmer waters, while the Denman Glacier is in a more precarious state, with its disappearance contributing to a nearly five-foot rise in global sea levels.

Unfortunately, Denman is now exposed to some warmer waters that could accelerate melt rates. The melting process is largely dependent on the ocean's state within a nearly 33-foot-thick boundary layer directly underneath the ice shelf.

Argo floats are designed to measure various elements inside this boundary layer, but until now, none have spent such an extensive amount of time near one. Delphine Lannuzel, an oceanographer not affiliated with the study, noted that this is an amazing story of the little float that could deliver invaluable information under incredibly testing conditions.

Rintoul explained that these types of robots offer vital data that helps improve climate computer models and reduce uncertainties about sea level rise. Deploying more floats along the Antarctic continental shelf would transform our understanding of the vulnerability of ice shelves to changes in the ocean.