As climate change becomes the greatest threat to humanity scientists are looking for ways to accurately study weather and snow accumulation in Antarctica. According to scientist Hendrik Huwald at the Laboratory of Cryospheric Science, EPFL, focused on “surface mass and energy balance in alpine and polar environments.”, Since 2016, we’ve measured with terrestrial laser scanning,” Huwald said. “But to cover larger areas we decided to go with photogrammetry to obtain the 3D surface topography using ‘structure from motion’. WingtraOne has all the features for getting high-accuracy data and broad coverage.”Flying in -15C (5F) at the edge of the drone’s wind limits at times, and at an altitude of 2300 meters above sea level, Huwald’s first impression of WingtraOne and its RX1R II PPK payloads is positive: “Everything about the system is intuitive and works reliably. My experience was really good. It’s easy to handle. My expectation of the ease of using WingtraOne was certainly fulfilled. The pictures look good. We’ll see now how well we can derive the surface topography from the images; perhaps shadows can help us in this context.”

Images and Quote courtesy Wingtra