Most of the works on aerial photography were performed during the 62nd season of the Russian Antarctic Expedition, which took place near the Progress station.
View of the progress station
Progress is a small piece of civilization at the point with coordinates 69o 22' 24'' 'S 76o 22' 40'' 'E.
After the reconnaissance of the territory, two main survey areas were identified. The first one is the vicinity of the station - the Hills of Larsermann. The launch site was deployed on the territory of the Progress airfield at the distance of 7 km from the station.
Progress station airfield
On the territory of the Larsermann Hills there are 3 permanent (year-round) polar stations: Progress (Russia), Zhongshan (China), Baharati (India), and the Australian field base. During the entire period of survey there was continuous use of air space by various manned and unmanned aircraft. Aircrafts: BT-67 (Canada), BT-67 (China), DHC-6 Twin Otter (Australia). Helicopters: KA-32 (Russia) KA-32 (China), KA-32 (India), Eurocopter EC 120 (India) and Eurocopter EC 120 (Australia). Unmanned aircrafts were represented by nine units, including the only Russian product - Geoscan 201. For the first time in the history of Antarctica, international harmonization of the joint use of air space by manned and unmanned aircraft was carried out.
First testings
Control points installation
Determining the control points coordinates
Fastening of the snow-measuring marker
View from a glacier crack
A rare scene in Antarctica is fog. The airfield is located higher than the station so the fog has not reached us.
Antarctic fog
The end of the working day
Cormorant "Yasha" oversees the flight preparation
A seal
The second part of the survey was a 30 km fragment of the track of a sledge-caterpillar path to Vostok station (during the last few years, Progress station was the logistics center for the supply of the inland Vostok station). The launch point was deployed on the glacier, at a distance of about 32 km from the Progress station. In purposes of proper placement marching "camp" was installed.
The camp
This section of the route is the most dangerous in the path of a sledge-caterpillar path. When climbing the dome of the glacier there is a significant amount of glacial cracks on the track. The main purpose of this research is to identify cracks and then study the direction of motion. Below are aerial photos of cracks with a spatial resolution of 5-6 cm/pix.
1) Aerial photo of cracks at the edge of the Dolk glacier. The width of the crack amounts 28 meters. These cracks are open and difficult to access.
2) Aerial photo of more dangerous cracks hidden by a "snow bridge", located at 1.5 km from the track of a sledge-caterpillar path (SCP) to Vostok station. The width of the open crack is 9 meters.
3) Aerial photo of two hardly noticeable cracks from the glacier's surface, 300 m from the road of the SCP, completely hidden by the "snow bridge". Their width varies from 1 to 2 meters.
After the aerial survey, on some of the cracks geophysical surveys were performed with an area georadar survey and subsequent crack opening.
The width of the "snow bridge" varies from 20 to 70 cm
Members of the expedition witnessed a rare scene. The meltwater that forms during the melting of snow and ice together with the lakes runoff formed washout in the body of the Dolk glacier. Washout has been forming for more than a year, the culmination was the collapse of the upper wall of the glacier and the appearance of a dip on the section of the Progress-Aerfield path. Below are the fragments of three-dimensional models before and after the formation of a dip, obtained during the aerial survey.
The situation in the dip area on 14.01.2017
The situation in the dip area on 9.02.2017
The caving area was 4.1 ha, the maximum depth was 43 m. The dip fits into a rectangle measuring 357 m by 229 m. The volume of the dip, according to the results of preliminary processing, was 832 336 m3.
Meanwhile, a couple of emperor penguins diverged in opinion, where should they go: left or right. What do you think?
Season works of the 62nd Russian Antarctic Expedition are over and our story about the adventures and exploration of the Antarctica by Geoscan ends with them. We are leaving Antarctica, but we promise to come back.
Season line-up 62nd RAE, Progress station
Author: Volgusheva Natalia