Mapping icebergs in Greenland

This video from the USA says about itself:

18 April 2018

How is mapping an iceberg similar to mapping an asteroid? They are actually much the same kind of a mission: they both involve using an autonomous vehicle in an extreme environment to map and explore a remote moving object.

Taking on the task of mapping icebergs, engineers at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute developed the iceberg autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). During an expedition to Greenland in 2017, the research team successfully tested new control technologies that would allow the vehicle to safely travel parallel to complex vertical terrain (i.e., an iceberg). To do this the engineers outfitted the AUV with obstacle-avoidance sonars, aligned in the horizontal plane, to make sure the vehicle didn’t collide with anything. The vehicle also had a second sonar on it, aligned in the vertical plane, looking out the left side of the vehicle. This vertical sonar collected mapping data revealing what the target surface looked like.

The team ran several successful repeat missions on three different icebergs.

Video producer: Nancy Barr
Interview videographer: Todd Walsh
Video editor: Kyra Schlining
Music: http://taketones.com/track/digital-love (License N: TT000270144)
Illustration: Kelly Lance

For more information, see the MBARI 2017 Annual Report.

GREENLAND’S MELTING ICE IS A WARNING TO THE WORLD It is so warm in Greenland, just inside the Arctic Circle, that on an August day, coats are left on the ground and scientists work on the watery melting ice without gloves. In one of the closest towns, Kulusuk, the morning temperature reached a shirtsleeve 52 degrees. [AP]

Sea creatures, whether large or small, need nutrients. The supply mechanism delivering these nutrients is very different in different parts of the ocean, there are nutrient-rich coastal areas, but also very nutrient-poor regions in the open ocean. In some areas, the lack of iron in seawater limits plankton growth. These include much of the polar oceans. Here, icebergs appear to be an important source of iron input, which could increase due to increased iceberg production as a result of climate change. So far, however, only a limited amount of data has been available to estimate this process. An international team of researchers led by GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel has now examined ice samples worldwide for their iron content. The results show that an increase in icebergs, for example due to global warming, does not necessarily lead to an increase in iron input into the oceans. The results of their study were published today in the international journal Nature Communications: here.

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