Phys.org November 8, 2024 Solar-warmed surface waters subduct beneath Antarctica’s ice shelves because of wind forcing, but this process is poorly observed and its interannual variability is yet to be assessed. Researchers in the UK observed a 50-meter-thick intrusion of warm surface water immediately beneath the Ross Ice Shelf. Temperature in the uppermost 5 meters decreased toward the ice base in near-perfect agreement with an exponential fit, consistent with the loss of heat to the overlying ice. They found that Ekman forcing drove a heat transport into the cavity sufficient to contribute considerably to near-front melting; this transport increased over […]
Tag Archives: Autonomous vehicle
RACER Speeds Into a Second Phase With Robotic Fleet Expansion and Another Experiment Success
DARPA News April 23, 2024 DARPA’s Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program successfully tested autonomous movement on a new, much larger fleet vehicle. The RACER Heavy Platform (RHP) vehicles are 12-ton, 20-foot-long, skid-steer tracked vehicles – similar in size to forthcoming robotic and optionally manned combat/fighting vehicles. The RHPs complement wheeled RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs) already in use. Phase 2 off-road average autonomous speed goals are higher at lower intervention rates. Both RFVs and RHPs allow RACER to show adaptability and resiliency of autonomous software at multiple, platform-agnostic ground robot scales in an array of complex, military-relevant […]