Ships, robots and the fight to study Thwaites Glacier

Araon is a South Korean icebreaker that sails to the Antarctic. It carries scientists and equipment for polar research. The ship helps teams study glaciers and the ocean near the ice.

Thwaites Glacier is very large and it is losing ice. Scientists visit the glacier to study warm water under the ice because the water can melt the glacier from below. In January 2024 an underwater robot named Ran went missing under Thwaites during a trip with Araon. The loss showed how hard polar research can be, but researchers still try to learn more. They plan to place sensors and moorings on the seafloor. These instruments measure temperature and currents.