Life Under Ice: Antarctic Ocean World Analogs with HROV Icefin and RISE UP
Abstract
Icefin is a 3.5 m long, 24 cm diameter, 1500 m rated hybrid remote or autonomous underwater vehicle (HROV) developed for sub-ice observations in Dr. Britney Schmidt's Planetary Habitability and Technology Lab at Georgia Tech (US). First deployed beneath McMurdo Ice Shelf (MIS) in 2014, Icefin conducts basal ice, water column, and benthic surveys through ≥ 35 cm boreholes with a modular oceanographic sensor payload including CTD, DO, fDOM, turbidity, pH/ORP, ADCP, 2D forward sonar, altimetry, sidescan, and HD or 4K imaging. With live data streams via fiber-optic tether, remote or autonomous survey ability, and 5 km range Icefin provides a novel platform for better understanding ocean circulation, ice mass balance, and ecosystem diversity in sub-ice environments.
Currently, the Icefin team is conducting Antarctic fieldwork under the NASA PSTAR-funded RISE UP program (Ross Ice Shelf and Europa Underwater Probe). RISE UP aims to autonomously characterize habitability and under-ice environments on broad spatial scales via robotic platforms toward future exploration of ocean worlds. In addition to Icefin work, complementary water column profiling to constrain sub-ice habitability includes CTD profiling, nutrient concentrations, cell counts, and 16S/18S rRNA gene surveys. Here, we present updates from an ongoing 2018 Antarctic field season (October - December 2018) with observations from beneath McMurdo Ice Shelf, McMurdo Sound sea ice, and nearby Erebus Glacier Tongue of water column structure, benthic geology, and fauna from the basal ice interface to the seafloor 900 meters below. Continued work includes collaborations with the Antarctica New Zealand Ross Ice Shelf Programme (2019/20, PI Christina Hulbe) at Ross Ice Shelf Grounding Zone, and the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration with MELT (2019/20, PIs Keith Nicholls, David Holland). Icefin also serves as a novel oceanographic sensor development and test platform. Microfluidic cell counting, holographic microscopy, and onboard ice/sediment/water sampling modules are also currently in design and assembly phases.- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFM.P21E3402L
- Keywords:
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- 0726 Ice sheets;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 4599 General or miscellaneous;
- OCEANOGRAPHY: PHYSICALDE: 6207 Comparative planetology;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTSDE: 6299 General or miscellaneous;
- PLANETARY SCIENCES: SOLAR SYSTEM OBJECTS