Antarctic Robot Ran Vanishes After Mapping 54 Square Miles Beneath Dotson Ice Shelf
Updated
Updated · SlashGear · Jun 21
Antarctic Robot Ran Vanishes After Mapping 54 Square Miles Beneath Dotson Ice Shelf
3 articles · Updated · SlashGear · Jun 21
Summary
Early 2024 saw Ran disappear after re-entering the cavity beneath West Antarctica's Dotson Ice Shelf to measure changes following its 2022 mission; searches with acoustic gear, helicopters and drones found no trace.
54 square miles of sonar mapping completed before the loss revealed the shelf's underside is not smooth but cut into terraces, channels, grooves and teardrop-shaped pits nearly 1,000 feet long.
Circumpolar Deep Water appears to drive those shapes and uneven melt rates, with stronger currents eroding Dotson's western side faster than its calmer eastern flank.
Science Advances published the maps, which researchers say improve forecasts because thinning ice shelves act less effectively as buttresses holding back land glaciers that raise sea levels.
Antarctic melt has already added about half an inch to global sea levels since 1979, giving Ran's final dataset significance far beyond the missing vehicle.
After a robot's mysterious disappearance, what will its successor reveal about Antarctica's hidden world?
Is Antarctica's 'doomsday glacier' melting faster than our worst-case climate models predicted?
Do newly found underwater canyons mean our sea-level rise predictions are dangerously underestimated?
The Disappearance of Ran: How a Lost Antarctic Robot Changed Sea Level Science Forever
Overview
In January 2024, the autonomous underwater vehicle Ran disappeared during a mission beneath Antarctic ice, marking a major loss for polar research. Ran, commissioned in 2018, was unique for its ability to follow preprogrammed instructions, allowing it to move faster and cover greater distances than remotely operated vehicles. Over six years, Ran conducted vital surveys near the seafloor and under ice, significantly boosting Sweden’s role in AUV-based research. Its most notable achievement was collecting the first detailed maps of a glacier’s underside, providing crucial insights into ice dynamics and sea-level rise before its disappearance.