Finalist
Maria Stenzel
Freelance
"Investigating Climate Change in Antarctica"
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An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), called Autosub3, returns to the icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer after a 40 hour, 68 mile mission to map the underside of the ice shelf portion of Pine Island Glacier. The submarine measured ocean properties under the ice shelf, detecting the presence of "warm" Circumpolar Deep Water (CDW), which is rapidly melting these ice shelves.
Since it is too dangerous to send a submarine operated by humans under an ice shelf, and the distance is too far to send a tethered ROV, the pre-programmed AUV is the tool of choice. If Autosub3 gets lost or stuck under the ice, all the data it collects is lost. The $2 million AUV, runs on 5,000 D cell batteries.
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