Drone-mapping of Nordenskiöldbreen in Svalbard
Two years ago I went on an amazing fieldwork trip to map glacier crevasses in Svalbard with drones. We spend five days in Bruebyen and hiked to the glacier front of Nordenskiöldbreen. From there, I have been flying the drone over the impressive glacier while…
Are drones going to be banned from Svalbard?
A new legislative proposition threatens the use of aerial and marine drones in Svalbard. The proposal to the Svalbard Environmental Protection Act introduces a ban of drones in all protected areas in Svalbard. Scientific drone applications could be severely hurt by this regulation. I am…
Finding pesticides in the Arctic and Antarctic
Another paper on the topic of industrial chemicals that I have contributed to has been published. The paper is titled: “Historic Atmospheric Organochlorine Pesticide and Halogenated Industrial Compound Inputs to Glacier Ice Cores in Antarctica and the Arctic“. In the paper we are looking at…
Preventing motion blur in drone mapping
Motion blur is an unwanted photo effect that occurs when a picture is taken with a long exposure and rapid movements. In drone mapping, motion blur occurs when the drone is flying at a high speed while taking pictures. If the flight speed is high…
Are unmanned aircraft more sensitive to icing compared to manned aircraft?
My latest paper investigates the sensitivity of unmanned aircraft to icing in comparison to manned aircraft. Differences in airframe size and airspeed can lead to substantially different icing performance penalties. Think of a “normal” aircraft. Chances are that you are thinking of something that is…
A new perspective on reindeer counting in Svalbard
This summer a group of scientists from the University Centre in Svalbard and the Norwegian Polar Institute pioneered a new method to count reindeer in Svalbard using drone technology. Their goal was to count reindeer in Sassendalen using aerial imagery that was obtained from an…
Latest experimental campaign
This summer, I went on a joint campaign with UBIQ Aerospace and the NTNU UAV Icing Lab at the icing wind tunnel facility of the Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT). The main goal of the campaigns was to do experiments on ice protection systems for UAVs…
SIOS Early Career Researcher Award
Last week, I participated in the SIOS Online Conference 2021 with an abstract titled “Scientific Applications of Unmanned Vehicles in Svalbard”. My presentation was based on the SESS Report chapter that I wrote for SIOS last year. Today, I was notified that I received the…
Life hack: Presentations using presenter view with a single screen in Microsoft Teams and Zoom
Recently, I learnt something I wish I knew a long time ago. How to give a presentation on Zoom and Teams using the presenter view on a computer with only one screen. Given how many presentations I give in my job and that I often travel…
How often do drones encounter icing conditions?
When I talk about my research, I often hear the following question: “How often do drones actually encounter icing conditions?”. This is a very good question – and until recently I had only vague answers. Usually, I would refer to two reports in the literature…