May 2020
PicoMB-120 in the Arctic
At the end of last year, the PicoMB120 was used by a combined team from the Centre for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, NOAA (the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and Stockholm University abord the Swedish icebreaker Oden. Mapping the area around the Ryder glacier, researchers were looking for patterns and causes of historical changes to the glacier. This knowledge can help them understand how the marine cryosphere is affected by climate change.
The PicoMB120 system, fitted on an Echoboat USV, was transported by helicopter and used to get complete maps of the bathymetry of lakes surrounding a fjord which then guided the sampling of their bottoms for climate history. The system was also used to map near-shore areas to find a series of “old beaches” which indicate when sea level changes have occurred.