A Low-Cost Surface Vehicle for Studying the Near-Terminus Region at Tidewater Glaciers

2025/06/16 by Hari Vishnu, Mandar Chitre, Bharath Kalyan +5 · 1 voice · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Medicine · #Arctic and Antarctic ice dynamics #Cryospheric studies and observations #Winter Sports Injuries and Performance

paper · doi:10.1109/oceans58557.2025.11104518

openalex publication_date 2025/06/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

The terminus region of tidewater glaciers is under-explored, yet the processes occurring there are critical to our understanding and assessment of climate-change-induced ice loss, thermohaline structure, fjord-scale dynamics and bio-physical interactions occuring in the glacial bays. This region is hazardous for humans to directly access, necessitating exploration using uncrewed robots. This paper discusses the design, development and deployment of a low-cost remote-controlled surface vehicle for in-situ studies in the near-terminus region. The robot is instrumented with passive acoustic, conductivity-temperature-depth and video sensors, and is able to profile short transects in close proximity to the terminus region. We outline the strengths of the system, the challenges, limitations, lessons learnt and scope for improvement.

Citations

• Submarine melting at the terminus of a temperate tidewater glacier, LeConte Glacier, Alaska, U.S.A.
• Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers

Cited by

• Estimating Iceberg Melt Rates from Video Using Novel View Synthesis

Discussions

• Over the last few years we've explored #robotics to monitor remote glacial termini, to complement our passive acoustic monitoring work. Introducing Glacial Ablation Monitoring Robot (GLAMOR), a surfac [bsky, 2 points, 1 comments]

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