Adam SteerThis is one of the worst <a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/DroneMaps?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#DroneMaps</a> I've ever made, and is also incredibly valuable because it is data that will never be captured again, plus it really helps get another dataset - the electromagnetic induction ridge survey line - into context.<br>
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It was about -12C, with 12m/s winds, 82 degrees north (in this map, north is to the right). I launched the drone with a snow shovel as a windshield against blowing /saltating snow at ground level, and at the first launch the aircraft promptly blew away and crashed in the snow.<br>
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On recovery the drone was undamaged, so we made sure it was on 'full power mode' and took off. Control was nuts - trying to keep to sane speeds for photography and flying hard into the wind then being blown back. Turning was a mission. I was done after not too long, just mentally cooked from flying.<br>
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The heroes in this story are the tools which let us undertake such audacious ideas and know that we'll get something useable. Even in the worst conditions, we had a drone that could handle it (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/ANAFIUSA?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#ANAFIUSA</a>), software which made sense of scrappy data (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/OpenDroneMap?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#OpenDroneMap</a>) and tools to visualise it effectively alongside other data - which makes it all worthwhile (<a href="https://pixelfed.social/discover/tags/QGIS?src=hash" class="u-url hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#QGIS</a>).<br>
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There's another story about how we map on drifting ice, that's in the works.<br>
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I was working on / funded by the Norwegian Nansen Legacy Project when this map was made, in mid-2021. My co-conspirators on this voyage were Polona Itkin and Tristan Petit. And this same drone lived to fly many more successful missions!<br>
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