UAV based very-high-resolution imaging on Barton Peninsula Antarctica.

UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) capable of shooting in low-altitude with
an advantage of taking a high-resolution is economical and accessible way of obtaining
images compared to satellite and conventional aerial photography. In
this study, UAV imaging was performed to obtain very-high-resolution images in
restrictive environment of Antarctic in Jan 2014. The target area was nearby the
King Sejong station located in Barton Peninsula, Antarctica. The UAV was
equipped with GPS/INS and IMU, and Canon EOS 5D Mark III camera. Flights
considering unexpected weather condition of Antarctica were planned with combination
of 22 courses, flight altitude of 100 m, forward overlap of 70% and lateral
overlap of 30%. As flight results, about 1,500 images of spatial resolution of
about 2 cm were obtained with location and attitude information. In preprocessing
steps, brightness adjustment and geometric correction were performed to produce
orthoimages. Mosaicked orthoimages was produced with an extent of about
3.1 km2 around the King Sejong station. Quality of the mosaicked image was
evaluated by overlapping 1/5,000 digital topographic map and KOMPSAT-2 satellite
images of 1 m spatial resolution.