India's Polar Remotely Operated Vehicle (PROVe) Trails Successful - Deployed in Northern Antarctica

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India begins Antarctic probe with Chennai-made ROV

India has started undersea exploration of an unexplored region in northern Antarctica by a polar remotely operated vehicle (PROVe) developed by Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT). (Representative photo)​

CHENNAI: India has started undersea exploration of an unexplored region in northern Antarctica by a polar remotely operated vehicle (PROVe) developed by Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).

The vehicle underwent a two-month trial in Priyadarshini, a freshwater lake in the Schirmacher oasis (an ice-free plateau) which is a source of water for Maitri, India's second permanent base in the continent. The underwater vehicle, which has a capacity to go up to a depth of 200m, has been deployed in the ocean at a depth of 62m with the help of a ship chartered from Russia.

It is now near an ice shelf, which connects the coastline to the landmass, located about 1,000km from Maitri. While more than 30 countries have been conducting research in the icy continent, officials at NIOT said none has conducted studies in the region where India is working. "Even the US has gone only to the other side of the Antarctic," said director of NIOT, M A Atmanand.

PROVe has been fitted with sensors to measure various parameters including temperature, conductivity, depth and dissolved oxygen. Apart from cameras, the vehicle has sonar (a meter that measures light penetration), water sampler and bottom corer to collect samples from the seabed. Scientists involved in the project said they would also study the flora and fauna in the ocean and measure the thickness of the ice shelf and other floating ice called ice floes. An ice corer will be used to collect samples of ice which could be millions of years old.

The obtained data is being analysed. The expedition, conducted in co-ordination with the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR), will be on till April this year. Union minister for science and technology and earth sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan, who visited NIOT on Wednesday, said PROVe and its subsequent versions will help understand the polar influence on ocean currents affecting the movement of monsoon winds.

While the exploration is in full swing, scientists said the real challenge is to work under unpredictable weather conditions. Summer in Antarctica is from October to February. "But the water began freezing three days after the team reached there in February," a scientist said. "The wind speeds are high during summer, and it gets worse during winter. Despite the odds, we were able to test the vehicle in the lake, which is now deployed in the ocean," he added. Scientists said that a similar PROVe will be deployed for exploration in the Arctic region later this year.

Source:- India begins Antarctic probe with Chennai-made ROV - The Times of India

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

Deep-Water Remotely Operable Submersible (ROSUB-6000)​

Remotely Operated Submersible - ROSUB6000

ROSUB6000 being launched from the vessel for deep sea exploration

ROSUB6000 being launched using LARS

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[The_Sidewinder]

Another success story. Heartwarming to witness our scientists hard work paying off. Cudos to them.

 

[Indo-guy]

It's East Antarctica and not North Antarctica .

Priyadarshini lake is just 14 meter deep .

This is unnecessary publicity of small project - no big deal .

 

[Dr. Sen]

Yeh huyi na baat! Advancement is science is paramount!

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India’s Monsoon Prediction Improves As Remote-Controlled Polar Vehicle Launched​

New Delhi: Union Minister for Earth Sciences and Science & Technology Dr Harsh Vardhan today dedicated to the nation an indigenously developed remote-controlled Polar vehicle which would reach where no human can dare to go. It will be deployed in the extremely harsh Polar Regions and will be remotely operated by our scientists at our base in Antarctica. The Minister said that the results of its findings will contribute vastly to mankind’s understanding of climate besides enhancing our capability to predict the Monsoon”. He was speaking after a visit to the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), a part of the Earth System Sciences Organization (ESSO) in Chennai this evening.

Its successful development by ESSO-NIOT signals the beginning of a process of both self-sufficiency and entry into the highly sophisticated field of Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) engineering which has hitherto been dominated by the western powers. Dr Harsh Vardhan said. “We have taken the polar plunge. PROVe and its subsequent versions will enable us to understand the Polar influence on ocean currents affecting the movement of Monsoon winds on which much of our economy depends”, he added.

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After years of work based in Dakshin Gangotri (Antarctica), Indian scientists have discerned a clear connection between the thermohaline circulation that originates in the North Atlantic and southern Arctic and the Monsoon. It is a major force that drives not only the oceanic circulation but also regulates the global climate.

Dr Harsh Vardhan said, “Monsoon prediction and reading of pattern will become easier in the future. It will measure parameters like ocean currents, temperature and salinity in the Arctic. A moored ocean observatory has been set up in the Arctic in collaboration with the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) in 2014.”

The Minister said, “The ESSO-NIOT team that participated in the 34th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica (ISEA) successfully deployed PROVe in the Priadarshini Lake located on the Schirmacher Oasis in Antarctica which is the source of water for Maitri, India’s second base in the icy continent.”

He added that PROVe’s systems have been integrated with Conductivity, Temperature, Dissolved Oxygen sensors and Irradiance meter. PROVe was later deployed near ice shelf from the ship at the India Bay in Antarctica at a depth of 62 metres. Further explorations and data analysis are in progress.

The country, he said, is on track with the objective of developing reliable technology to solve the varied technology problems associated with harvesting living and non-living resources in the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone which makes up about two-thirds of the land area of India.

ESSO-NIOT has forged collaborative agreements with leading world institutions like JAMSTEC, Japan, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI), USA.

Under the Ministry`s Monsoon Mission program, ESSO-NIOT is part of an Indo-US initiative involving the participation of several institutions. This group is studying the science behind the monsoonal events of Bay of Bengal using both Indian and US research ships using special equipment. The results are very promising from the point of view of enhancing insights into air-sea interactions.

Dr Harsh Vardhan interacted with scientists and technicians of ESSO-NIOT and was briefed on the progress of research on coastal zone management. He urged them to keep in mind environmental concerns.

Source:- India's Monsoon Prediction Improves As Remote-Controlled Polar Vehicle Launched - Northern Voices Online | Northern Voices Online

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India to procure ship that can break through 1.5 metres of ice

At present, India has a fleet of six such vessels.
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India's scientific expeditions in the polar region will get a boost with the ministry of earth sciences deciding to procure a polar research vessel (PRV) from Spain that can navigate through 18,000 nautical miles of frozen waters and break ice as thick as 1.5 metres.

In addition to the PRV, four other vessels, including two that would help in coastal research, will be replaced in the next three years. At present, India has a fleet of six such vessels.

Loaded with advanced features, the new PRV — which has been commissioned by the National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa — will be the most hi-tech research vessel India will have. It will facilitate research expeditions in the polar region where many teams from the country, including those from Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), have carried out studies.

The new vessel is expected to sustain two research stations -Maitri and Bharti -in Antarctica and the one in Norway, called Himadri.

Now, India has ocean research vessel Sagar Nidhi that can break ice up to 40cm thick and navigate a maximum distance of 10,000 nautical miles. A scientist who has been on polar expeditions said Sagar Nidhi has field limitations when compared to the PRV, which is technically much more advanced.

Ministry of earth sciences secretary, Shailesh Nayak said the PRV is being procured at a cost of more than `1,000 crore and that the government has identified a shipyard in Spain where the vessel will be constructed.​

Sources involved in the process said the PRV will be about 130m long with a powerful 6MW propulsion system that will help the vessel to traverse frozen seas.

The PRV will have an automatic weather station, besides advanced instruments to collect sediment from the ocean floor (the process is called coring), facilitate ocean current profiling, seabed mapping and measure atmospheric pressure.

India's Antarctic expeditions depend mostly on ice-class vessels chartered from the international market. These vessels -largely cargo ships that transport men and material -are expensive to hire and do not serve as research platforms.

"Usually, an ice-breaker vessel cuts across frozen seas to make way for another one (meant for research purposes) to follow. The PRV will do both. It will be the top notch research vessel in our country. Very few countries have such steps. In Asia, Japan and China have such vessels," a seasoned polar scientist said.

While the procurement of the PRV is expected to be completed in 34 months, tenders have also been floated for two coastal research vessels (CRVs) for shallow water scientific research in the exclusive economic zones -zones where India has special rights to explore and use marine resources.

The two CRVs will come handy in seabed surveys, water sampling, seabed mapping and sub-bottom profiling. They will be 40m-45m long with reduced noise and vibration levels.​

Source:- India to procure ship that can break through 1.5 metres of ice - The Times of India

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India Deploys its First Sub-Surface Ocean Moored Observatory in the Arctic - To Aid Climate Change Studies​

IndARC being deployed in Kongsfjorden from the Norwegian research vessel RV Lance. Photo: Special Arrangement​

A major milestone in India’s scientific endeavors in the Arctic region has been achieved on the 23rd July, 2014 when a team of scientists from the ESSO-National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (NCAOR) and the ESSO-National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) successfully deployed IndARC, the country’s first multi-sensor moored observatory in the Kongsfjorden fjord of the Arctic, roughly half way between Norway and the North Pole. This moored observatory, designed and developed by ESSO-NIOT and ESSO-NCAOR with ESSO-Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) was deployed from the Norwegian Polar Institute's research vessel R.V. Lance during its annual MOSJ-ICE cruise to the Kongsfjorden area. The observatory is presently anchored (78°57´ N 12°01´E), about 1100 km away from the North Pole at a depth of 192 m and has an array of ten state-of-the-art oceanographic sensors strategically positioned at discrete depths in the water column. These sensors are programmed to collect real-time data on seawater temperature, salinity, current and other vital parameters of the fjord.

The Kongsfjorden is an established reference site for the Arctic marine studies. The Kongsfjorden has been considered as a natural laboratory for studying the Arctic climate variability, as it receives varying climatic signals from the Arcitc/Atlantic in the course of an annual seasonal cycle. ESSO-NCAOR has been continuously monitoring the Kongsfjorden since 2010 for understanding response of the fjord to climate variability at different time scales. The temperature and salinity profiles of the fjord, water column nutrients and diversity of biota are being monitored at close spatio-temporal scales throughout the spring-summer-fall seasons. There exists a great need to know on how the fjord system is influenced by, or responds to exchanges with the water on the shelf and in the deep sea outside during an entire annual seasonal cycle. In particular, there is a need for continuous observations of the water transport into the interior part of the fjord. One of the major constraints in such a study has been the difficulty in reaching the location during the harsh Arctic winter and obtaining near-surface data. The IndARC observatory is an attempt to overcome this lacuna and collect continuous data from depths very close to the water surface as well as at different discrete depths. The data acquired would be of vital importance to the Indian climate researchers as well as to the international fraternity. In addition to providing for an increased understanding of the response of the Arctic to climatic variabilities, the data would also provide a good handle in our understanding of the Arctic processes and their influence on the Indian monsoon system through climate modelling studies.

The deployment of the country’s first polar mooring is a testimony to the capabilities of the ESSO in designing, developing and installing underwater observatories. The technical and logistics support extended by the Norwegian Polar Institute, is a good example of the increasing scientific and technical co-operation between India and Norway in addressing the global climate change.

Source:- India Deploys its First Sub-Surface Ocean Moored Observatory in the Arctic

 

[Chanakya's_Chant]

India has begun an exploration for mineral deposits and precious metals like gold and silver in the Southern Indian Ocean. The country's first ever seabed exploration for polymetallic sulphides is being done in the Rodriguez Triple Junction (RTJ), a geological junction in the southern Indian Ocean where three tectonic plates meet near Mauritius.

India to dive deep for gold - The Times of India

 

[kṣamā]

the vehicle has sonar (a meter that measures light penetration)

Shouldn't it be Sound ??

 

[kurup]

Shouldn't it be Sound ??

Yes ..... as usual DDM at it's finest ....