Environment academic employs UAV to map Svalbard glacier
Posted on 15 September 2013
As part of their ongoing research into exploring recent changes in Arctic glaciers, Environment's Dave Rippin and Andy Pomfret from the Department of Electronics have spent a significant chunk of this summer in Svalbard mapping the Midtre Lovénbreen glacier. The work this year has allowed them to use a remote controlled aircraft, the Quest UAV 200 along with software processing techniques and d-GPS using a Trimble R6 system to map the glacier in 3 dimensions and with high resolution.
Below are some of the messages posted to their blog whilst working there, shwoing a little of what life and research is like in some of the planet's more remote areas:
Polar bears and how to share their environment
"Today we had our compulsory weapons training, to allow us to carry a rifle when we leave the settlement. This is in case we meet a polar bear. Usually the bears migrate north with the retreating sea ice in summer, but this year has seen an unusually high number remain on the Svalbard islands. Most stay on the eastern islands, but three have been seen in Ny-Ålesund village this year (and have been successfully chased away with flares), and there is known to be a mother and cub somewhere in the fjord at the moment."
Weather - what's it like in Summer in the High Arctic?
Currently the weather is about as cold as a normal British winter (around 3 to 8 degrees in the middle of the day, -4 or so at night), with a reasonably strong southerly wind. We’re hoping for a lull in the wind when we begin our first flights.
Has the passage of time changed the environment?
So, we’ve been here a few days now, and after our rifle training and sessions on how to deal with polar bears, we have permission to leave the settlement on our own – pretty crucial for carrying out our work! Two days ago, we headed out for a recce of the area. Midtre Lovénbreen is somewhere that I know well, having carried out my Ph.D. research on the very same glacier in 1998 and 1999. I also visited the glacier for shorter periods in 2000 and most recently in 2005. However, those trips are still some time ago, and so I was expecting to see big changes – I was right.
Did the trip go well?
Yes it did! Flying our UAV in such challenging conditions provided us with a number of problems, but in the end we have produced an exceptionally high-resolution image of the glacier surface, which we will use (coupled to earlier, low-resolution imagery) to explore changes in surface drainage and changes in glacier extent.
One final thing to mention, is that our work here in Svalbard has gained a lot of interest from the other scientists in the community in Ny-Ålesund. As a result, we were asked to give a talk earlier in the week to everyone here about our work. Despite getting minimal notice about this, and despite having just an hour to prepare (after getting back from the field), our efforts gained a lot of attention, both with respect to our science aims, and the platform we used (i.e. the QuestUAV 200 system).
So, all-in-all this has been a pretty successful trip. Thanks from both Andy and I to all the team at Quest for their unswerving support and encouragement. We’re looking forward to showing you our results (and getting our UAV a full-service!) when we return to the UK.
Read more...
If you want to find out the whole story, please read the full blog.
More information of the Quest UAV 200 system is here.