Underwater robot helps create 3-D map of Antarctica's ice

Able to go where manned vessels cannot, scientists get much-needed help from an underwater robot to survey Antarctica's melting ice.

Measuring the thickness of Antarctic sea ice, an important gauge of environmental conditions in Antarctica in this time of global climate change, has proven to be a tricky task. Satellite measurements can be skewed by surface snow, and some ice floes are simply too difficult to reach by ship, even icebreakers, in order to take direct measurements by drilling into them.