Even though they must have known they would be asked about the similarity to the title of a Beatles’ song, British researchers nevertheless painted a new robot submarine bright yellow. Denying the connection, an engineer said yellow makes it easy to spot the robot when it surfaces from under ice shelves in Antarctica. 

The seven-foot robot submarine will probe the underside of the ice at the end of the Pine Island glacier. This glacier and one alongside, the Thwaites, are moving faster than any other glaciers in Antarctica, bringing more water to the oceans than Europe’s Rhine River, according to a news article from Reuters.com. The rate of flow has quickened to 2.3 miles a year from 1.5 miles in the mid-1990s. The submarine will help scientists understand what is driving the quickening.

One theory is that a shift in deep ocean current may be bringing warmer water from the depths that melts the ice shelves. If the shelves melt, the glaciers may slide off the land more quickly, adding more water to the ocean and causing sea levels to rise. Higher sea levels could swamp low-lying Pacific islands.

The yellow submarine, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) known as Autosub, is powered by 5,000 D batteries. As it cruises below the surface it requires no communication from the researchers; its route has been programmed in advance. The Autosub has a top speed of 3.4 knots, a range of 250 miles, and the ability to dive to 5,800 feet. When all this exhausts its batteries, the submarine will return to the mother ship for new ones.  

Autosub is expected to make a half-dozen missions under the ice taking sonar readings and measurements of the saltiness of the water. The submarine will also tether devices to the seabed to monitor ocean temperature, salinity and currents. An earlier autosub was lost in 2005 as it investigated the underside of an ice shelf.

The British Antarctic Survey is developing the Autosub project. It is anticipated that fleets of robotic submarines could be used in the future to monitor and collect data from all the world’s oceans. Photos of the sea-going robot and a description written for students can be found at http://www.coexploration.org/bbsr/classroombats/tour/html/autosub.html