Enabling Under-Ice Geochemical Observations with a Size, Weight, and Power-Constrained Robot

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, lightweight underwater robot with a novel sampling system designed for under-ice geochemical measurements in Arctic environments, enabling higher resolution data collection during critical seasonal periods.

Contribution

The paper presents a new SWAP-constrained underwater vehicle and sampling system tailored for under-ice geochemical observations in Arctic estuaries, addressing logistical challenges.

Findings

Successfully demonstrated in a field-analog setting

Enables high-resolution under-ice geochemical sampling

Suitable for seasonal Arctic environmental studies

Abstract

Estimates of greenhouse gas emissions from Arctic estuarine environments are dominated by in situ summer-time ice-free dissolved gas measurements due to the logistical ease of performing field observations in these conditions. Recent evidence in coastal Arctic environments, however, has demonstrated that dissolved methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) are strongly seasonally variable, and at least one significant gas ventilation event occurs during the spring freshet. Whether the Arctic serves as a source or sink of greenhouse emissions has significant implications on modeling climate change and its feedback mechanisms. To enable higher resolution spatiotemporal measurements of dissolved gases in typically undersampled conditions, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) can be used to extract near continuous water samples below ice before and during the spring freshet. Here, we present a size, weight, and power-constrained (SWAP) underwater vehicle (UV) and novel geochemical sampling system suitable for taking under-ice geochemical observations and demonstrate the proposed system in a field-analog setting for Arctic estuarine studies.