Antarctic Aerial Photography from 2010-11 Field Season

Digital aerial photography was flown for the Australian Antarctic Division during the 2010-11 Antarctic summer season. The collection includes vertical and oblique photographs taken from a CASA 212-400 aircraft between 2 January and 6 February 2011. Extracted metadata, including file name, date, camera, focal length, latitude, longitude, and altitude, is available for download.

Use Cases

• Map coastal features like the Cronk Islands, Knox Coast, and Clark Peninsula using georeferenced latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Monitor changes in ice melt and runway conditions at Wilkins Aerodrome by analyzing imagery from specific dates.
• Study whale populations and habitats by examining photographs from the Whales project, linked to specific geographic coordinates.
• Create 3D models or orthomosaics of sites like the Frazier Islands using camera focal length and altitude data from the metadata.

Strengths

• Images are georeferenced with aircraft GPS, providing latitude and longitude coordinates.
• Metadata includes specific technical details like camera model (Nikon D200, D700) and focal length.

Limitations

• The full image set is too large for direct download and must be requested, limiting immediate access.
• Temporal coverage is limited to a 36-day period in early 2011, providing only a snapshot in time.

Provenance

Source

Australian Antarctic Data Centre (AADC), collected by a contractor for the Australian Antarctic Division.

Collection Method

Aerial photography captured from a CASA 212-400 aircraft using Nikon digital cameras.

Time Range

2 January 2011 to 6 February 2011

Freshness

null

Geography

Antarctic coastal regions including Casey, Wilkes Coast, Knox Coast, Cronk Islands, Frazier Islands, Wilkins Aerodrome, and Aurora Basin.