Boaty McBoatface is providing insight into warming oceans
The first mission involving Boaty McBoatface, an autonomous submarine, has provided new information on the link between Antarctic winds and warming sea temperatures.
"During the three-day mission, Boaty travelled 180 kilometres through mountainous underwater valleys measuring the temperature, saltiness, and turbulence of the water at the bottom of the ocean," reads a statement from the University of Southampton.
"Using an echo sounder to navigate, Boaty successfully completed the perilous route, reaching depths of up to 4000 metres."
The researchers involved in the study say Boaty's data will provide unprecedented insight into how climate change occurs in remote waters.
"The data from Boaty McBoatface gave us a completely new way of looking at the deep ocean--the path taken by Boaty created a spatial view of the turbulence near the seafloor," Dr. Eleanor Frajka-Williams of the National Oceanography Centre said in a statement.
A complete paper on the findings has been published in the scientific journal PNAS.
