USING REMOTE SENSING AND RPAS FOR ARCHAEOLOGY AND MONITORING IN WESTERN GREENLAND

Abstract

Since 2002, German low-cost scientific expeditions to Greenland have been performed. The objective was a geodetic survey and glaciology with GNSS technology – mainly the measurement of glacier profiles (height). The same glacier profiles along the route were measured during German expeditions in 2006, 2010, 2012 and 2015. The last international expedition was supplemented with RPAS (UAV) measurement, the testing of small corner reflectors for Terra SAR X satellite measurement and the use of image based modelling technology for historical monuments documentation, all in specific arctic conditions. The RPAS measurement was focused on the documentation of existing valuable archaeological sites near Ilulissat city and the testing of RPAS technology for the monitoring of the face of the moving glacier. Two typical church wooden constructions were documented by simple photogrammetric technology based on image correlation. Both experiments were evaluated as successfully case projects. The last part of the experiments deals with the monitoring of a moving inland glacier using SAR technology; four corner reflectors were installed on the glacier and on a massive nearby rock. Two ascending and two descending overflights of the Terra SAR X satellite in fine resolution mode were performed. The InSAR technology give inconclusive results, but some movements were detected; small and inexpensive corner reflectors of our own production have proven suitable. Experience and expertise from the measurement such as the first outputs from the expedition are the content of the present article.