To help predict when the next massive chunk of ice will break off, researchers in Antarctica are using robots to go where humans can’t to observe real conditions.
![](https://www.insidehook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iceberg_050917_0004-1.jpg?resize=259%2C172)
UC Davis engineering professor Alexander Forrest was part of a six-person robotics team on a mission to collect data about the Nansence ice shelf, from which two Manhattan-sized icebergs broke off last year. The information will help scientists understand the rate ice melt in the Arctic.
“Ice shelves are melting,” Forrest said in a press release. “We know this. But we don’t know how fast they’re melting. To actually make on-site measurements is the next step. We’re trying to get a baseline understanding of what changes are happening in the Antarctic. As a global community, we don’t really understand what we’re losing.”
![](https://www.insidehook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iceberg_050917_0002-1.jpg?resize=313%2C235)
The robotics team spent almost two months conducting research from an icebreaker stationed in the Western Ross Sea and Terra Nova Bay as part of an expedition called Land-Ice/Ocean Network Exploration with Semiautonomous Systems (LIONESS).
While one underwater drone mapped the bottom of the Nansen ice shelf, a winged glider patrolled its edge to monitor any changes and patrol for freshwater.
![](https://www.insidehook.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/iceberg_050917_0003-1.jpg?resize=1280%2C853)
This article was featured in the InsideHook newsletter. Sign up now.