ROV Icefin Ascertains How Ice Melts

Britney Schmidt and collaborators are publishing two papers related to melting rates and how melting occurs at Antarctica’s hottest glacier: Thwaites Glacier. The team designed and used its Icefin ROV, “basically an underwater robotic oceanographer,” for first-of-their-kind observations regarding how the ice is melting.

“These new ways of observing the glacier allow us to understand that it’s not just how much melting is happening, but how and where it is happening that matters in these very warm parts of Antarctica,” said Britney Schmidt , associate professor of astronomy and earth and atmospheric sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S) and Cornell Engineering.