[M-IS05] Global climate change driven by the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic Ice Sheet

[MIS05-03] MONACA: The hot explorer under ice

★Invited Papers

*Toshihiro Maki¹, Hirokazu Yamagata¹, Hiroshi Yoshida², Yoshifumi Nogi³ (1.The University of Tokyo, 2.Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 3.National Institute of Polar Research)

Keywords:Antarctica, Observation technology, Autonomous Underwater Vehicle

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are now recognized as a convenient and high-performance tool for underwater survey. However, under ice observation is still challenging. Because the surface is packed with ice, AUVs cannot directly surface even in case of emergency. Support vessels cannot stay in close to the vehicle either. The vehicle mostly has to return to a pinpoint open water nearby the ship through long lonely journey home.
The AUV MONACA was developed for under ice survey of Antarctica, supported by JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas No.4902. MONACA is 2 m long, 230 kg weigh, and it can cruise for about 8 hours. The vehicle is designed to go into ice covered oceans as far as 10 km. Although the survey range is limited compared with large AUVs, it can conduct a highly precise survey with lower costs. Its sensor unit consisting of a multi-beam sonar, an INS (Inertial Navigation System), and a DVL (Doppler Velocity Log) can be flipped upside down, so that the vehicle can survey both the ice and seafloor with minimum modification. In this presentation, the overview of the project is introduced. Results of open water and under ice experiments are also shown.