Imagery of Aurora Australis and sea ice captured by a 'quadcopter' (Inspire) drone launched from the ship

In January 2005 a multi-parametric international experiment was conducted that encompassed both Deception Island and its surrounding waters. This experiment used as main platforms the Spanish Oceanographic vessel 'Hesperides', the Spanish Scientific Antarctic base 'Gabriel de Castilla' at Deception Island and four temporary camps deployed on the volcanic island. This experiment allowed us to record active seismic signals on a large network of seismic stations that were deployed both on land and on the seafloor. In addition other geophysical data were acquired, such as: bathymetric high precision multi-beam data, and gravimetric and magnetic profiles. During the whole period of the experiment a multi-beam sounding EM120 was used to perform bathymetric surveys. The characteristic of this sensor permitted to reach up to 11.000 m b.s.l. In table 2 we provide some of its main characteristics. During the experiment different bathymetric profiles were performed with this equipment outside of Port Foster. Some of these images already have provide an accurate vision of the region, and were used to estimate the real size of the water column locate below each shoot. Additional information of these data could be found in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at IEDA Marine Geoscience Data System (http://www.marine-geo.org/). It is possible to access the summary of downloads that were made of these data and documents at http://www.marine-geo.org/about/downloadreport/person/Ibanez_Jesus/2016A.

The RAN Australian Hydrographic Service conducted hydrographic survey HI514 at Mawson, February to March 2012. The areas surveyed were the entrance to Horseshoe Harbour and the western side of West Arm. There is also a single line of soundings east of Evans Island. The survey dataset, which includes the Report of Survey, was provided to the Australian Antarctic Data Centre by the Australian Hydrographic Office and is available for download (see a Related URL). The vertical datum of the soundings is Lowest Astronomical Tide, 0.83 metres below Mean Sea Level. The survey was lead by LT C.E.Diplock. The data are not suitable for navigation.

This dataset (provided as a series of CF-compatible netcdf file) consists of 432 consecutive maps of Antarctic landfast sea ice, derived from NASA MODIS imagery. There are 24 maps per year, spanning the 18 year period from March 2000 to Feb 2018. The data are provided in a polar stereographic projection with a latitude of true scale at 70 S (i.e., to maintain compatibility with the NSIDC polar stereographic projection).

A high resolution bathymetric grid of the nearshore area at Casey station, Antarctica was produced by Geoscience Australia by combining data from two multibeam hydrographic surveys: 1) A survey conducted by the Royal Australian Navy in 2013/14. Refer to the metadata record 'Hydrographic survey HI545 by the RAN Australian Hydrographic Service at Casey, December 2013 to January 2014' with ID HI545_hydrographic_survey. 2) A survey conducted by Geoscience Australia and the Royal Australian Navy in 2014/15. Refer to the metadata record 'Hydrographic survey HI560 by the RAN Australian Hydrographic Service at Casey, December 2014 to February 2015' with ID HI560_hydrographic_survey and the metadata record 'Seafloor Mapping Survey, Windmill Islands and Casey region, Antarctica, December 2014 - February 2015' with ID AAS_3326_seafloor_mapping_casey_2014_15. The grid has a cell size of one metre and is stored in a UTM Zone 49S projection, based on WGS84. Further information is available from the Geoscience Australia website (see a Related URL).

This dataset comprises oblique aerial photographs of multiple Adelie penguin breeding sites in East Antarctica. The photographs were taken using hand-held digital cameras from fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters used by the Australian Antarctic Program. The aircraft flew at or above the minimum wildlife approach altitude of 750 m with a horizontal offset distance from the site of approximately 500-600m. The date and exact location of the aircraft when each photo was taken is embedded in the EXIF data of each photo. All photographs that were taken are included despite varying image quality due to environmental conditions, camera type and altitude. Generally an attempt was made to photograph the entire breeding site (usually an island, occasionally an outcrop of continental rock) with a series of zoomed, overlapping photos. Sometimes this was not possible when the site was large, and in these cases the overlapping photos covered the locations where colonies were known to exist from previous survey work. In some cases a site was over-flown at an altitude of 1200m so that a single photo of the entire site could be taken. These photos are useful in piecing together the detailed photos. The database of potential Adelie penguin breeding habitat in Southwell et al. (2016a) was used to associate photos to a particular breeding site and structure how the photos are stored. The breeding site database has a unique identifying code of every site of potential breeding habitat in East Antarctica, and the sites are aggregated into sub-groups and then groups. The file structure in which the photos are stored has a combination of ‘group’ and ‘split-year breeding season’ at the top level (eg VES 2015-16 contains all photos in group VES (Vestfold Hills and islands) taken in the 2015-16 breeding season). Within each group-year folder are sub-folders for each breeding site where photos were taken (eg IS_72276 is Gardner Island in the VES group). If an overview photo was taken there are separate sub-folders for overview and detailed photos in the site sub-folder. These data also superseded an earlier dataset of 2009-2016 data - https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/AAS_4088_Adelie_oblique_photos Please refer to the Seabird Conservation Team Data Sharing Policy for use, acknowledgement and availability of data prior to downloading data.

Taken from sections of the report: 1. Introduction This report details the survey work carried out on Macquarie Island during November 1997 by LANDINFO staff on behalf of the Australian Antarctic Division's Mapping Program. The main task of the survey team was to acquire aerial photography of the island to enable the production of a new topographic map of the island. Other tasks involved field checking the digital station area map (DSAM) and providing support to the tide gauge maintenance team. The following team carried out the survey-mapping work: Tom Gordon LANDINFO Surveyor Roger Handsworth Antarctic Division Engineer Although this report touches on the work carried out by Roger Handsworth and Rupert Summerson, it does not cover the specifics of their work. 2. Project Brief The survey-mapping brief lists the following tasks: 1. Aerial Photography of the Island and station area. 2. Aerial Photography of Judge and Clerk Island to the south and Bishop and Clerk Island to the north of Macquarie Island. 3. Second order levelling from the tide gauge bench marks to AUS 211 4. Updating the Digital Station Area map. These tasks are listed in order of priority. A copy of the survey brief for Macquarie Island is included in Appendix A.

Taken from sections of the report: The aim of the survey and mapping program on V5.1 was to carry out various surveying tasks at Mawson and Casey as listed later in this report. The vessel used in Voyage 5.1 was The Polar Queen. Voyage 5.1 left Capetown on Thursday 18th February and arrived Fremantle Friday 19th. March. Depart Capetown Thursday 18th February Arrive Mawson Sunday 28th February Depart Mawson Tuesday 2nd March Arrive Davis Thursday 4th March Depart Davis Thursday 4th March Arrive Casey Monday 8th March Depart Casey Thursday 11th March Arrive Fremantle Thursday 18th March The survey team was: Henk Brolsma Australian Antarctic Division - surveyor. John Hyslop Australian Antarctic Division - volunteer surveyor. The surveying at Mawson and Casey included bringing the data representing the station infrastructure up to date. The station infrastructure data is available for download in GIS format (shapefiles) from Related URLs below. The data resulting from this survey has a Dataset_id of 15. The data is formatted according to the SCAR Feature Catalogue. For data quality information about a particular feature use the Qinfo number of the feature to search for information using the 'Search datasets and quality' tab at a Related URL below. Matt King, Rachel Manson and Lee Palfrey assisted with survey work at Casey. They carried out GPS surveys for aerial photo control, Casey and Wilkes, tide gauge bench marks at Casey, buildings detail at Wilkes and route markers around the station. Their work is not covered in this report.

Taken from sections of the report: Introduction This report details the survey work carried out in Antarctica and Heard Island from December of 1996 to March of 1997 by AUSLIG on behalf of Australian Antarctic Divisions Mapping Program. The principle aim of this work was to acquire aerial photography of; the coastal areas west of Mawson, Scullin and Murray Monoliths, the immediate area around Davis station, Gaussberg and Heard Island. A number of other tasks were also carried out. In the following pages each task will be dealt with in terms of the technique employed and the results achieved and coordinates will be quoted as appropriate to the topic being discussed. Where these coordinates have been derived from GPS observations a detailed report on the processing of each baseline can be found at Appendix C. These result files have also been supplied in digital form. The survey work was carried out by the following people : Paul Digney Antarctic Division Volunteer Roger Handsworth Platypus Engineering Noel Ward AUSLIG This report does not cover the specifics of the work carried out by Roger Handsworth, that being the subject of separate reports to be submitted by him. Time Frame The survey field party departed Hobart at 5pm on Monday 9 December 1996 aboard RV Aurora Australis, Voyage 4 of the Antarctic re-supply season. Voyage 4 commenced cargo operations at Mawson on 22 December 1996. The survey party returned to Australia via Heard island from Davis Station departing Davis on 15 March 1997 aboard RV Aurora Australis, Voyage 5. Voyage 5 returned to Hobart on Saturday 29 March 1997. All passengers disembarked at about 5pm that day. The movements of the Survey party between operational areas whilst within Antarctica are as follows : 22 December 1996 - The Stillwell Hills field party, including the survey party, departed for the Stillwell Hills directly from RV Aurora Australis, 10 January 1997 - The Stillwell Hills field party, including the survey party moved to Kemp Peak depot, Stillwell Hills 11 January 1997 - The Survey party move to Mawson by S76 helicopter 29 January 1997 - Move to Davis Station via Sansom Island, by S76 helicopter, 13 February 1997 - 'Day trip' to Gaussberg ex. Davis by S76 helicopter. Aim and Project Brief Work was undertaken by AUSLIG for Antarctic Division in a number of operational areas this season. The principle areas of activity Mawson Station and the coastal areas west to Kloa Point, Davis Station and the Vestfold Hills, Gaussberg and Heard Island. The actual tasks to be carried out and the prioritisation of those tasks, at each location defined by Australian Antarctic Division and were detailed in their Brief to Surveyors(see Appendix A). As the season progressed variations both in the scope of the work programme and the relative priorities of tasks within the programme occurred. Such changes were forwarded from the Mapping Officer if originating in Kingston; or if originating in Antarctica were discussed with the Mapping Officer, if operational circumstances allowed, before implementation. At each location the major task was the acquisition of aerial photography and then establishment of ground control for that photography. Other significant tasks included vertical connections between tide gauge bench marks and the ARGN GPS sites.

The TOMO-DEC experiment was organized in three main legs: (1) a search for sites to deploy seismic stations and for temporary camps to accommodate the researchers (austral summer 2003-2004); (2) the field phase of data collection during the austral summer 2004-2005; and finally (3) a laboratory phase of data gathering, organization and analysis, that still ongoing as papers continue to be published. The preliminary analysis of data involved an initial phase of data gathering from instruments of different types, their organization in a joint database, their conversion to a common format and, finally, the determination of the first P-wave arrival times. Leg 1 was performed during two summer field expeditions (2002-2003 and 2003-2004). The whole island was surveyed (including glacial areas) in order to identify potential sites for seismic stations and camps. Leg 2 took place between December 2004 and March 2005 with most of the activity focused in the deployment of seismic stations (on land and OBSs), air-gun shooting, data collection and final recovery of the majority of the seismic stations. This experiment took place between January 4 and January 24, 2005. Ninety-five on-land seismic stations and 14 OBSs were deployed. They included 7 Lennartz Marslite seismic stations (covering 14 positions), four M24 instruments (covering 7 positions) and 11 seismic arrays (with 84 short period sensors, occupying a total of 101 different positions), all of them working in continuous recording mode. Active seismic sources were generated using an array of air-guns with a maximum capacity of 3520 cubic inches. Together with the seismic waveforms, a final dataset consisting of travel times for more than 70000 crustal P-wave first arrivals was collected. Bathymetric data were recorded using both EM120 and EM-1002 multi-beam sounders and a SIMRAD EA-600 single-beam sounder. Magnetic profiles were obtained using the MarineMagnetics SEASPY marine magnetometer on the base of an Overhauser sensor. Finally gravimetric data were acquired using the marine gravimeter BELL AEROSPACE-TEXTRON BGM-3. In total more than 1000 km of profiles were acquired with all types of data. The experiment at Deception Island was organized in collaboration with several research institutions. For the field work and data collection the following institutions (with number of researchers and provided instruments) participated: Instituto Andaluz De Geofisica, Spain (12, 10 land seismic arrays of malIAG type); Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, USA (4, 14 OBS); INGV-Osservatorio Vesuviano, Italy (1, 7 land stations of Marslite type); INGV-Catania, Italy (1, 4 land stations of M24 type); CENAPRED, Mexico (1); Universidad De Cadiz, Spain (2); Universidad De Colima, Mexico (1); University College Dublin, Ireland (1); Universidad Complutense De Madrid, Spain (1); Universidad De La Plata, Argentina (1); University Of Washington, USA (3); USGS Volcanic Hazard Team, USA (2).