Pioneering drones explore sea pack ice puzzle in Antarctica

• Main Author: Williams, GD
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: . 2015
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Physical Oceanography; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://ecite.utas.edu.au/118864

Drones may help solve one of the big scientific puzzles in Antarctica, and that's what's happening to the sea pack ice in winter.Despite big shifts in climate and warming waters, Antarctic sea ice is not contracting - in fact, if anything, it's increasing in size.Dr. Guy Williams from the University of Tasmania is currently on board the US icebreaker Nathanial B Palmer in East Antarctica.The American icebreaker is currently sea floor mapping - trying to understand why deeper, warmer currents are reaching the Antarctic coastal shelf and undercutting glaciers and ice sheets.On the same expedition, Guy Williams is pioneering the use of drones in Antarctica to get high resolution aerial images of the shape and structure of the sea ice as it forms with the onset of winter.