Heterogenous system for in situ measurements from within ice shelf cavities to improve predictions of sea level rise

There is an ongoing need to collect in situ physical observations of the ocean and ice beneath the permanent floating ice shelves of Greenland and Antarctica. These measurements will enable us to better understand the ocean circulation and mixing and ocean-ice interaction processes that control the rate of ice melting within ice cavities. Further, the species and nutrient and energy flows within the ecosystems that have evolved in these remote and extreme ocean environments (environments which may be analogues to ocean worlds such as Europa) have yet to be fully characterized. We are working on a coordinated observation system to enable autonomous in situ measurements of the under-ice environment. Our approach utilizes a heterogeneous network: an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that serves as an instrumented science platform and a delivery system for instrumented science pods. We are developing AUV autonomy software suitable for under ice exploration. Leveraging COTS devices, we are also developing deployable, buoyant instrument pods (IcePods) that can collect oceanographic and ice measurements close to the ocean-ice interface. Our vision is for an AUV and a set of IcePods to work in tandem to collect both large-scale and small-scale physical data including ocean temperature, salinity, velocity, turbidity, and turbulent heat and salt fluxes near the ice; ice cavity shape and surface roughness; and biological measurements of fluorescence, pH, and dissolved oxygen. Our approach, if successful, will revolutionize our ability to study this nearly inaccessible realm.