MRI: Development of AUV Technologies for Long-Range Under-Ice Transects

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract This MRI award to researchers and engineers from WHOI and University of Michigan seek to assemble a suite of instrumentation to further both research and educational training into the practical and theoretical aspects of the navigation and communication capabilities of Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The application focus is to encourage a more routine operation of relatively inexpensive AUVs in under sea-ice, floating ice shelves and large iceberg environments. Such studies are recognized (e.g. IPCC AR4) as critical needs to our understanding of climate induced changes in the cryosphere, and the implications such changes may have for future sea level rise, planetary albedo, and other aspects of climate prediction. Our current limited understanding of ice/ocean interactions at the terminal margins of Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are notably lacking in direct and sustained observation of factors such as basal roughness, subglacial hydrology and topographic conditions, temporal and spatial variability of ice sheet and meltwater flow fields, ocean thermal, salinity and current fields. Awareness of the approach and progress to its realization will be communicated by the investigators to the public and K-12 activities under ongoing programs at their respective institutions. Successful results will be of immediate interest to polar and climate scientists engaged in observation and modeling studies. The increasing number of small AUVs that exist in the US academic and oceanographic agencies provides a natural focus for student involvement in research and development projects.