Into the Unknown - Science Under the Ice

23 June 2006

The achievements of Autosub, the Natural Environment Research Council's unmanned, self-propelled research submarine, will be celebrated on Monday 26th June, at the Royal Geographical Society, London.

Autosub's 382 successful missions have provided scientists with a wealth of information on climate change, marine life and the mysterious world under the ice.

Its achievements are being profiled in a special event, "Into the Unknown", to mark the end of a major science programme. This event is the culmination of a £5.6 million programme lasting five years, which involved over 60 scientists from 13 UK institutions.

Autosub's expeditions to Greenland and Antarctica permitted new insights in the unexplored world under the ice - with results applicable to the understanding of climate change and improved predictions on what might happen to global sea level rise.

The robot sub - looking like an overgrown torpedo - performed the first mission ever undertaken under the shelf ice of Antarctica in February 2005 which provided scientists with a step forward in understanding the ice shelf. It was always known that this was high-risk science and the original Autosub became trapped beneath a 200 meters thick ice shelf in Antarctica in 2005. The replacement is already carrying out successful missions.

In other expeditions, Autosub collected data in 2003 to support a prediction that warm water blown under the ice shelf of the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic could be causing the increased melting of the ice. It also measured the temperature, salinity and water flows from the mouth of a fjord in Greenland down to a depth of 1500m.

The data showed the massive contribution of water from the melting glaciers and highlighted how fresh water in the Arctic and Antarctic can affect global climate change over a time scale as short as five years.

The environment under the ice is one of the last great, unexplored areas, and the Autosub programme brings together oceanographers, geologists, engineers and marine scientists to investigate this.

Operating with the National Oceanography Centre Southampton, Autosub carried out science missions that investigated issues such as underwater currents, and the distribution of Krill by polar sea ice, and has been employed in projects ranging from analysing fish stocks in the North Sea, to mapping manganese distributions in a sea loch.

Autosub also

Discovered a new current off Greenland
Made advances in unmanned submarine design including intelligent navigation, collision avoidance and upward looking sonar
Found evidence for fast-flowing glaciers and tracks of icebergs on the seabed
Discovered warm and cold currents under ice and collected unique water samples

Autosub's technology has been licensed for use in the oil, gas, and sub sea cable markets. Autosub was also awarded Millenium Product status by the UK design Council; a replica of Autosub is on display at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Event Details: 26th June 11.30am. Royal Geographical Society, Exhibition Road, Kensington, London.

Further information

NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215

Notes

1. The National Oceanography Centre, Southampton is a joint partnership between the University of Southampton and the Natural Environment Research Council. Before a change of name on 1 May 2005, the Centre was known as the Southampton Oceanography Centre.

2. NERC is one of the UK's research councils. It uses a budget of about £350m a year to fund and carry out impartial scientific research in the sciences of the environment. NERC trains the next generation of independent environmental scientists. It is addressing some of the key questions facing mankind, such as global warming, renewable energy and sustainable economic development.

Into the Unknown - Science Under the Ice

External links

Press links

Recent press news