UT group to conduct underwater robotic exploration in Greenland

Researchers will get an up-close look at three massive glaciers in an effort to achieve more accurate model projections for future sea level rise.

AUSTIN, Texas — Researchers from the University of Texas at Austin are set to launch a robotic exploration of three of Greenland’s glaciers to get a look at massive ice structures.

The mission is set for midsummer 2023 and will be the first time the glaciers, which make up the world’s second-largest ice sheet, are seen up close underwater.

However, the primary focus isn’t to look at the ice, but the moraines – or natural sand walls – that stabilize the sheet. The team’s findings could lead to more accurate projections for future rising sea levels.

“The big uncertainty in Greenland’s contribution to sea level rise is how fast the ice sheet is going to lose mass,” Ginny Catania, a professor at UT’s Jackson School of Geosciences who is leading the voyage, said in a release. “We know how much sea level is stored in the ice sheet, we know climate is warming and changing the ice sheet, but what we don’t know is the rate at which these glaciers will contribute to sea level rise.”

The mission will study three glaciers in Greenland that are in the path of warming Atlantic waters and yet have responded to climate change in different ways.

“They provide a nice test case for ideas about what’s building the moraines and how those processes may vary between location,” Catania said.

A remotely operated vehicle engineered by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) made to survive ice-covered seas, Nereid Under Ice (NUI), will approach the glaciers and retrieve data and samples from the underwater environment.

NUI will maneuver toward each glacier, mapping the seafloor topography as is makes its way. Operators on a nearby ship will remotely guide the robot’s arm to retrieve sediment cores from the moraines. It will also grab samples from sediment plumes jetting from under the glaciers.

Mike Jakuba, a senior engineer with WHOI, said the mission will help scientists understand the link between the world’s oceans and ice sheets.

“With NUI, the vision from the beginning was to provide a system that would project human presence into environments like this that demand greater access if we’re going to get a better handle on how the planet is changing,” Jakuba said.