Boaty McBoatface, Internet-Adored Sub, Makes Deep-Sea Discovery On Climate Change
-snip-
"It was the first mission and brought back an incredible wealth of data," oceanographer Eleanor Frajka-Williams of the U.K.'s National Oceanography Centre tells NPR.
In April 2017, Frajka-Williams and other researchers deployed the submarine to take measurements deep in the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. Their findings were published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"In recent decades, winds blowing over the Southern Ocean have been getting stronger due to the hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica and increasing greenhouse gases," the researchers said in a statement.
They wanted to see how these stronger winds on the surface were impacting the environment far below the waves — and whether that deep ocean activity was contributing to rising sea levels.
So they sent Boaty into underwater valleys, traveling to depths of up to 4,000 meters (nearly 2.5 miles). Boaty's longest journey took three days and traveled 180 km, or more than 110 miles.
-snip-
https://www.npr.org/2019/06/18/733759839/boaty-mcboatface-internet-adored-sub-makes-deep-sea-discovery-on-climate-change
