Drones in Antarctica : Living Island Glaciers Case Study

For the study of glacier thermo-mechanics models, the precise definition of the glacier geometry is required. It was thought in a solution from aerial photogrammetry with drones. The purpose is the capture of data in extreme climatological environments, for the precise obtaining three-dimensional Digital Surface Models of glaciers (DSM). These models will be the base for glaciology studies. The distinctiveness of this work lies in the fact that it was the first time that drones were used in the Spanish Antarctic area and the need to adapt the conventional methodology to an environment of extreme weather conditions. This methodology was applied to a real case, the Johnsons and Hurd glaciers, on Livingston Island. The results were compared with other data obtained from the same glacier by other techniques, which allowed to validate the reliability of the methodology used and will be published through Web services (WMS) in a prototype of a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) of the Spanish Antarctica.