I spy with my little eye…nothing. No ice over miles and miles of ocean.
Despite Antarctica being far away from those of us living in Sussex, climate change is an issue closer to home than you may think, with parts of Sussex’s coastline soon to become Atlantis, possibly completely submerged by 2050. This is a real problem we could face if the Antarctic ice sheets continue to melt at fast rates, but yet exactly how much global sea levels would rise is still under rough estimation. Though Antarctica may have become the “poster child” of climate change, in reality, Antarctica is not well studied at all. Most of the landscape is uncharted territory, and exploring these blank spaces on the map is crucial to revealing important information on the topography of Antarctica’s underwater mountain ranges to predict how fast ice will melt. But why are scientists concerned about the underwater landscape of Antarctica? Take ice skating for example, if the ice is smooth, the ice skater would have no issue gliding across the ice at high speeds, but if the ice was rugged and spiky, it would surely slow the ice skater down. The same principle applies to floating ice sheets, where a mountainous underwater terrain creates more friction and as a result slows down ice flow. Similar to defrosting frozen meat under running water, increased water flow results in faster melting rates.
This is where drones come into play, not because scientists can sit back and relax in their offices and let the drones do all the work, but rather, ice penetrating drones play a crucial role in the study of these hidden giants, making the terrain of underwater Antarctica visible on screen. Such technology is not completely unheard of, in fact, the first large scale ice penetrating radar study was conducted in the 1960s. Satellite radar is used to measure the time taken for a radar pulse to travel from the satellite to the sea surface and back to the satellite. This can only infer the presence of tall protruding seamounts and very deep valleys based on the gravitational influence these topographical features have on the sea’s surface. Drones have made it possible to map out areas vulnerable to fast ice flow in more detail and accuracy so that scientists can better predict exact numbers of sea level rise to prepare and inform us on how to combat climate change. And as Tom Jordan, a geophysicist specialising in airborne data collection says,
“Polar science urgently needs extensive new high-resolution datasets to understand the ways the Antarctic ice sheet is changing, and how this will impact communities around the world,”
Ice penetrating drones do not physically penetrate ice. Penetration happens when the drone fires pulses of radio waves through the ice, which bounces off the ocean floor. The drone retrieves these echos and records them as a data point, using them to draw the shape of the terrain point by point. This new technology could potentially lead to massive groundbreaking discoveries in various fields, not only in climate science but also in studying glaciers and surveying deep sea marine ecosystems.
Currently, the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) test crew has conducted successful test flights over the Rothera Research Station in Antarctica with their newest model, the Windracers Ultra UAV, a 10 metre fixed wing drone, which can carry 100 kg worth of cameras or sensors for distances up to 1000 km along with a sophisticated autopilot system. The significant increases in flight time and geographical range compared to its predecessor, the Twin Otters, could potentially reduce CO2 emissions by 90%.
This new technology is definitely a game changer for climate science and kick starts a brand new discovery of the hidden natural wonders of Antarctica.
