High resolution digital aerial surveys of portions of the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Group

High resolution digital aerial photography of Adelie penguin colonies, Davis Station, Heidemann Valley, and other various areas, LIDAR scanning of portions of the Vestfold Hills, Rauer Islands and sea ice in front of the Amery Ice Shelf, conducted from 2009/11/17 to 2009/11/23. Some of the aerial photography has been conducted in support of various AAS projects: AAS 3012 (ASAC_3012) AAS 2722 (ASAC_2722) AAS 1034 (ASAC_1034) AAS 3130 (ASAC_3130) A short list of the work carried out: - Long duration over water/sea ice flights for the purposes of "Investigation of physical and biological processes in the Antarctic sea ice zone during spring using in situ, aircraft and underwater observations". - Over-flights at 750m over specific islands in the Vestfold Hills and Rauer Islands known to hold Adelie colonies. - Transects of flights were performed over Davis station, at 500m altitude, taking photos and LIDAR measurements. - The evaluation of the APPLS equipment (camera, LIDAR, electronics, software) was performed and in parallel to the other tasks. - Production a digital elevation model of the Heidemann Bay Area. - Aerial photography / LIDAR of moss beds in the Vestfold Hills area. - The Marine Plain area, south east of Davis, was mapped using LIDAR and aerial imagery for the purposes of general Antarctic information. - The Vestfold Lakes, particularly Lake Druzby, Watts Lake, Lake Nicholson and Crooked Lake provide interesting aerial imagery. - The opportunity was taken to visit the plateau skiway (at 'Woop woop') and estimate the effort in opening the skiway later in the season. - Fly over and photograph the length of the resupply fuel hose from the AA to the shore. - The Russian 'Progress 1 and 2', and Chinese Zhong Shan stations were over flown and aerial imagery collected. Taken from the report: This document describes the results of the use of the APPLS (Aerial Photographic Pyrometer Laser System) at Davis during resupply 2009/2010 (November 17 to 24, 2009). This document is primarily for Science Technical Support use. Portions of the report can be used to provide information on the results obtained to other parts of AAD.