Boaty McBoatface reveals insights into Antarctic heating

The autonomous submarine to be housed on the UK's new Antarctic research vessel, RSS Sir David Attenborough, has shed light on a key process linking increasing Antarctic winds to rising sea temperatures.

The Autosub Long Range (better known as Boaty McBoatface after the phrase won a competition to name the research vessel, but the government deemed it too silly) undertook the research in September 2017 as part of its first research voyage, in a project involving the British Antarctic Survey, Southampton University, and US institutions Princeton University and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. Its mission took it on a 180 mile (290km) journey through underwater valleys, navigating via echo sounding, where it measured such data as water turbulence using a Doppler current profiling instrument and shear micro structure sensors, plus salinity and temperature.

Reaching depths of 4000m, Boaty was eventually recovered by another research vessel, RSS James Clark Ross (RSS Sir David Attenborough is currently undergoing sea trials ahead of its active service) and its data downloaded for study.