IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2023 - 75

[19], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], extract subglacial terrain and
environmental information [29], [30], analyze the ocean-
atmosphere-ice coupling process [31], [32], [33], [34], and
study the evolution of Antarctic flora and fauna [22], [35],
[36], [37], [38], [39], [40], [41], [42].
Numerous studies exist on the development of UAV software
and hardware as well as research in the cryosphere and
polar environments [7], [8], [14], [17], [43], [44], [45]. This article
concentrates on the use of UAVs for polar research in Antarctica.
We examine the history and present status of UAV technology
in Antarctic research as well as the prospects of UAVs in
interdisciplinary studies on polar research in the Antarctic from
the current literature. The " Brief Summary " section provides an
overview of current research in the Antarctic using UAVs and
highlights the overall utilization statistics of UAVs in Antarctic
polar research. The " Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Applications in
Antarctic Research " section summarizes the latest progress in
Antarctic research utilizing UAVs in various application areas.
The " Discussion " section examines the limits of current Antarctic
UAV research as well as future difficulties and requirements,
based on the findings of the previous sections. Finally, the
" Conclusion " section provides a summary of the study.
10
1
2
3
4
5
2
4
6
8
2007 2009 2011 2013
2015 2017 2019 2021
Year
(a)
BRIEF SUMMARY
UAVs are being used by several countries for scientific operations
in Antarctica. The United States, Poland, Australia,
Japan, and China are among the top five countries, accounting
for over 60% of the total research in this field, followed
by Russia, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
Antarctic research using UAVs has also been carried
out by Portugal, Finland, Latvia, Chile, and so on (Figure 1).
The UAV was originally deployed as a carrying platform for
a flying lidar fluorosensor payload to collect information on
marine parameters in Terra Nova Bay of the Ross Sea during
the 17th Antarctic Research Expedition, by Italy, in 2004 [23].
No work was carried out in this field from 2005 to 2006.
Spiess et al. [46] suggested a new form of aviation weather
satellite UAV [Meteorological Mini Aerial Vehicle (M2AV)],
which was supposed to be tested at the Halley Station in Antarctica.
In 2008, the United States, China, United Kingdom,
and Japan all employed UAVs to conduct relevant scientific
studies during their Antarctic expeditions [16], [47], [48],
[49], [50]. Between 2009 and 2013, the United States, Australia,
and China, used UAVs to observe the temperature and
morphological features of sea ice, atmospheric conditions,
United States
Poland
Australia
Japan
China
Japan
8%
China
7%
Russia
6%
Germany
6%
New Zealand
5%
United Kingdom
3%
Russia
Germany
New Zealand
United Kingdom
Other Countries
Denmark
1
France
1
Italy
1
Peru
1
South Africa
1
South Korea
1
Spain
1
Switzerland
1
(b)
FIGURE 1. The available literature, by country, on UAV-based Antarctic polar research since 2007. (a) Frequency and (b) percentage of
scientific operations in Antarctica using UAVs by different countries from 2007-2021.
MARCH 2023 IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING MAGAZINE
75
Chile
1
Latvia
2
Finland
2
Czech Republic
2
Brazil
2
Portugal
3
Other Countries
19%
United States
18%
Australia
12%
Poland
16%
Frequency
Frequency
IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Magazine - March 2023

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