NASA’s ENDURANCE Explores Lake Bonney in Antarctica
09.04.2010 - Atmosphere & Space, Water & Oceans, Ice & Snow, Flora & Fauna, Antarctic
In an effort to develop technology fitted for the search of extraterrestrial life in the oceans beneath the surface of Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons, NASA-funded scientists and engineers have taken a significant step forward in preparing for such a mission as ENDURANCE (Environmentally Non-Disturbing Under-Ice Robotic Antarctic Explorer) finished its second season in the field surveying under the ice of Lake Bonney in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys.
Just like the previous year, the team melted a two-metre-wide hole in Lake Bonney’s ice cover to lower the 1300-kilogram robot into the lake. Over the course of a month, the robot studied the west lobe of Lake Bonney’s two lobes. Using sonar, it produced a high-resolution depth map of the lobe, while stopping every 100 metres to lower a package of scientific instruments down through the water column to collect data on temperature, salinity, pH, and several biological indicators. Of particular interest was finding a stream of frigid water flowing into the lake that was not been present the previous year under the underwater Taylor Glacier Ice Shelf. The season ended with a full exploration of the entire west lobe and a partial exploration of the east lobe.
One of the most impressive accomplishments of this year’s research team was making the most extensive 3-D biogeochemical map of any lake on Earth. From this, they plan to work with an electronic visualization lab to produce 3-D representations of the Lake Bonney data over the next year. The map will highlight the structure of chemical, temperature and biological gradients within the lake and allow them to visualize relationships between parameters.
