Host: The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
Name : [in Japanese]
Date : June 28, 2023 - July 01, 2023
The melting of ice and changes in ocean currents in Antarctica must be investigated to understand global climate change. In this regard, the volume changes of sea ice and ice shelves, bathymetry, and ocean currents in the Antarctic Ocean must be measured in three dimensions. Therefore, the use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), which can directly observe under ice, is being considered. The authors developed an AUV named Mobility Oriented Nadir AntarctiC Adventurer (MONACA) to observe sea ice and the lower region of the ice shelf in the Antarctic Ocean.
This paper reports about a first survey of AUV MONACA held in Jan. to Feb. 2023 at Antarctica. MONACA’s basic function such as waypoint tracking and altitude/depth control were verified at the under-ice. MONACA made 20 dives during the survey, duration was about 39 hours and travel distance was about 15.2 km in total. MONACA succeeded in measuring bathymetry and sea-ice shape with a multibeam sonar.
