This is no flipper of a joke -- scientists are using robotic dolphins to help them understand how the ice is melting in the Antarctic region.

Earlier this month, scientists from an environmental branch at a university in California published their findings in the journal of Natural Geoscience. It is with this data that was collected by the dolphin-sized robots in the antarctic that scientists could better comprehend climate change and its effects.

In order to investigate Antarctica's melting glaciers, the robotic dolphins were employed to find out why. The researchers from the environmental science and engineering division at the California Institute of Technology that carried out the work came to the conclusion that climate change was the reason for the dramatic melting, Tech Times reported.

The scientists used yellow robot ocean gliders approximately six feet long -- the size of dolphins -- to measure and gauge the salt water content, temperature and oxygen levels of the depths of the Weddell Sea in West Antarctica.

The gliders, which were better equipped than large ships, were remotely controlled. The gliders are small and energy efficient enough so they could sample the waters for longer periods of time, Tech Times reported.

The data from the gliders helped the scientists study the ocean features more effectively than in traditional ways. Andrew Thompson, assistant professor at the California Institute of Technology, stated that environmental changes occur in the Polar Regions that could affect results. The gliders work better than ships.

"One of the challenges of using ship-based oceanography is that it's difficult to stay out for long periods of time. Life gets in the way, sometimes," Thompson said, Tech Times reported.

How was the data collected from underwater to the scientists? It was reported that the robots sent data through satellite mobile phone technology whenever they surfaced every few hour hours. This allowed the researchers to access the data almost instantaneously from the gliders. The robot "dolphins" found turbulent warm water underneath Antarctica's ice shelves, which were responsible for the melting of the ice sheets.

The data further revealed that warm salty water transported via eddies -- instabilities caused by ocean currents -- added to the melting of the coastal ice. 

Thompson simply explained it as: "If you pour milk in your coffee and then you stir it with a spoon, the spoon enhances your ability to mix the milk into the coffee and that is what these eddies do. They are very good at mixing heat and other properties."

The robotic dolphin research is a lot more helpful than people think. The findings published in the journal of Natural Geoscience support theories about how the heat moves south and set benchmarks to track climate change, Huffington Post reported. 

With this data, it affirms what the U.N. panel of climate scientists say: Greenland and Antarctica are losing mass, and sea levels are rising.  

"A revolution is underway in Antarctic data," Karen Heywood, a co-author of the study at England's University of East Anglia, said. Heywood says that the robotic dolphins are raising the amount of data and cutting costs.

The work and data collection of the robotic dolphins is getting noticed, so much so that some researchers and countries have already invested in the technology. Some gliders are now made by Norway's Kongsberg, and other makers are from U.S.'s Teledyne Technologies and France's Alcen Group, the Huffington Post reported.

Katharina Nygaard, of Kongsberg's sub-sea division, has estimated that the firm had a quarter of a world market of 800 gliders.

"The demand is growing in the marine research world along with small but noticeable uptake by defense and commercial operators," Nygaard said, the Huffington Post reported.