Unprecedented Antarctic Expedition Maps Sea Ice
Brutally windy. Unfathomably cold. Disturbingly isolated.
This is the Antarctic Ocean in winter. It’s the last place anyone would want to be—unless you’re trying to solve a climate change mystery.
An international crew of scientists, including Northeastern graduate student Alek Razdan, recently returned from a two-month expedition to the Ross Sea off the coast of Antarctica. Razdan works with Northeastern professor Hanumant Singh, who designed and built another member of the crew—the Jaguar, an autonomous underwater vehicle.
The research group set sail from New Zealand aboard the Nathaniel B. Palmer, a type of ship called an icebreaker that’s capable of smashing through glacial waters. The expedition was the first ever to deploy an underwater robot into the Antarctic Ocean during winter.
NASA Goddard Space Flight