Dolphin-sized robots are giving clues to a thaw of Antarctica's ice in a sign of how technology is revolutionizing data collection in remote polar regions, scientists said on Monday.
An international study led by the California Institute of Technology used three yellow "gliders", about 2 meters (6 feet 6 inches) long and each costing $240,000, to measure temperature and salinity in the depths of the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
The measurements showed how vast eddies drive heat into shallower waters around Antarctica, helping thaw coastal ice.
The findings, in the journal Nature Geoscience, back up theories about how heat moves south and set benchmarks to track climate change. The U.N. panel of climate scientists says both Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass, raising sea levels.
Such battery-powered robots are raising the amount of data collected and cutting costs. Robot gliders can be left for months, diving and surfacing with tiny adjustments to buoyancy.
Elsewhere, about 3,600 free drifting "Argo floats" have been deployed worldwide since 2000 to help monitor temperatures and salinity in the seas. In the air, drones have also been used by organizations such as NASA to monitor ice.
In the Arctic, gliders are tracking higher temperatures that are driving fish stocks north.
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