An innovative use of instruments that measure the ocean near Antarctica has helped Australian scientists to get a clearer picture of how the ocean is melting the Antarctic ice sheet.
An innovative use of instruments that measure the ocean near Antarctica has helped Australian scientists to get a clearer picture of how the ocean is melting the Antarctic ice sheet.
Until now, most measurements in Antarctica were made during summer, leaving winter conditions, when the sea freezes over with ice, largely unknown.
But scientists from the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS) and the CSIRO, supported by ACE CRC, the ARC-funded Antarctic Gateway Partnership, the Centre for Southern Hemisphere Oceans Research (CSHOR) and the Australian Antarctic Division, developed a novel mission that allowed year-round measurements to be collected near the Totten Glacier, a fast-melting glacier in East Antarctica.
They used instruments known as Argo floats that are typically designed to drift with ocean currents and measure ocean temperature and salinity profiles.
Read more at University of Tasmania
Image Credit: NASA
