NASA is developing a fleet of robots that will swim beneath the Antarctic ice shelves to reveal how quickly they are melting, and how quickly that might cause global sea levels to rise.
Called IceNode, the mission will send robots to explore regions of Antarctica that humans can’t reach and satellites can’t see, providing vital data on how our heating planet is causing Antarctic ice to melt.
Discover the new NASA projects to monitor climate change
Numerous satellites orbit Earth to measure the effects of climate change, but one of NASA’s newest projects is a fleet of underwater robots that would explore Antarctica.
Engineers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have been conducting tests to develop the IceNode robots in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska.
The test involved lowering a robot into the ocean through a borehole in the ice, giving engineers a chance to further develop the IceNode prototype.
IceNode and Antarctica’s melting ice
Scientists say that, if Antarctica’s ice sheet melts completely, global sea levels will rise by about 200 feet (60 metres).
Sea level rise is caused by warming air temperatures, but also by warm water circulating below the ice.
Gathering data on what’s going on below the ice is key, but incredibly difficult.
The Antarctica ice shelves are miles-long sections of floating ice jutting outwards from the land.
These ice shelves slow the flow of ice sheets toward the ocean.
Scientists are targeting the ‘grounding zone’, which is where floating ice shelves, ocean and land meet.
But these regions are too dangerous for humans to access, and satellites can’t see into the cavities where ice may be melting fastest.
“We’ve been pondering how to surmount these technological and logistical challenges for years, and we think we’ve found a way,” says Ian Fenty, a JPL climate scientist and IceNode’s science lead.
“The goal is getting data directly at the ice-ocean melting interface, beneath the ice shelf.”
How IceNode will work
IceNode would consist of vehicles 8 feet (2.4 metres) long and 10 inches (25 centimetres) in diameter.
They’d have a three-legged landing gear to attach the robot to the underside of the ice.
And there’s no propulsion involved: they’d position themselves autonomously with the help of software using information from models of ocean currents.
IceNode robots would be released from a borehole or a vessel in the open ocean and ride currents beneath the ice shelf.
They would then affix themselves to the bottom of the ice and sensors would measure how fast warm, salty water is circulating upwards, and how fast cold, fresh water is sinking.
They would operate for a year, then detach themselves, drift back to the open ocean and transmit their data via satellite.
“These robots are a platform to bring science instruments to the hardest-to-reach locations on Earth,” says Paul Glick, a JPL robotics engineer and IceNode’s principal investigator.
“It’s meant to be a safe, comparatively low-cost solution to a difficult problem.”