A photogrammetric flight was performed in December 2016 as BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operation over Penguin Island (South Shetland Islands, Western Antarctica). Images were taken by the PW-ZOOM fixed-wing UAV equipped with a digital SLR Canon 700D camera. The flight was performed at 550 m ASL and covered a total distance of 231.58 km.The plane take-off and landing site was near the H. Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station (Arctowski) on King George Island, South Shetlands. The main aim of the mission was to collect environmental data to estimate the size of penguin and pinniped breeding populations and to map vegetation cover and landforms. The plane returned to Arctowski with 1630 images of Penguin Island with the ground sample distance (GSD) lower than 0.07 m. The images allowed us to locate and identify individuals of two penguin species (Adélie and chinstrap), and individuals of two species of pinnipeds (Southern elephant seal and Weddell seal). Three types of tundra communities were mapped together with numerous landforms such as: volcanic, mass movement, fluvial, coastal and aeolian ones. The UAV BVLOS photogrammetric operation proved to be very robust in gathering valuable qualitative and quantitative data necessary for monitoring distant and isolated polar environments.

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The aim of this article is to show geomorphological mapping of remote Antarctic locations using images taken by a fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) during the Beyond Visual Line of Sight (BVLOS) operations. We mapped landform assemblages developed in forelands of Ecology Glacier (EGF), Sphinx Glacier (SGF) and Baranowski Glacier (BGF) in Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 128 (ASPA 128) on King George Island (South Shetland Islands) and inferred about glacial dynamics. The orthophoto and digital elevation model allowed for geomorphological mapping of glacial forelands, including (i) glacial depositional landforms, (ii) fluvial and fluvioglacial landforms, (iii) littoral and lacustrine landforms, (iv) bodies of water, and (v) other. The largest area is occupied by ground moraine and glacial lagoons on EGF and BGF. The most profound features of EGF are the large latero-frontal moraine ridges from Little Ice Age and the first half of the 20th century. Large areas of ground moraine, frequently fluted and marked with large recessional moraine ridges, dominate on SGF. A significant percentage of bedrock outcrops and end moraine complexes characterize BGF. The landform assemblages are typical for discontinuous fast ice flow of tidewater glaciers over a deformable bed. It is inferred that ice flow velocity decreased as a result of recession from the sea coast, resulting in a significant decrease in the length of ice cliffs and decrease in calving rate. Image acquisition during the fixed-wing UAV BVLOS operation proved to be a very robust technique in harsh polar conditions of King George Island.

The recently observed recession of glaciers on King George Island is associated with decades of climate warming in the Antarctic Peninsula region. However, with only 60 years of glaciological observations in the study area ages of the oldest moraines are still uncertain. The goal of the study was to estimate ages of lichen colonization on the oldest moraines of the Ecology and White Eagle Glaciers on King George Island and on the Principal Cone of Penguin Island volcano. The first lichenometric studies on these islands from the late 1970s used rates that had about four to five times slower Rhizocarpon growth rates. We re‐examined the sites and measured 996 thalli diameters to establish the surface ages. To estimate the age we used (1) long‐term Rhizocarpon lichen group growth rates established by authors using data from a previous lichenometric study on King George Island, and (2) previous data of lichen growth rates from other sub‐Antarctic islands. Our results suggest growth rates between 0.5 and 0.8 mm yr–1. According to these rates the ages of the oldest moraine ridges are of the Little Ice Age and were colonized at the beginning of the twentieth century. The mid‐twentieth century age of lichen colonization on the historically active Penguin Island volcano might support the date of the last eruption reported by whalers in the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.

Glacially abraded basaltic rock surfaces found within a Little Ice Age (LIA) fore− land of Skálafellsjökull (SE Iceland) were studied at eight sites of different age applying different weathering indices. They include surface micro−roughness parameters measured with the Handysurf E35−B electronic profilometer -a new tool in geomorphology, Schmidt hammer rebound (R−values) and weathering rind thickness. Values of these indices ob− tained from study sites exposed to subaerial weathering for more than ca. 80 years are sig− nificantly different than those from younger moraines closer to the glacier snout. Despite a wide scatter of readings within each study site, there is a significant correlation between the ages and the values of the indices. It is concluded that the micro−roughness parameters pro− vided by the Handysurf E35−B profilometer, Schmidt hammer R−values and weathering rind thickness are robust indices of rock surface deterioration rate in short time−scales. There is mounting evidence that rock surface undergoes relatively rapid weathering during first decades since deglaciation.

Recent developments in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have resulted in high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) of vulnerable coastal environments, including beach–foredune topography. If performed repetitively, they can offer an excellent tool to determine the spatial and temporal changes in the sediment budget, which may be required for proper land management. However, the quality of a UAV, slope parameters, and vegetation significantly influence DEM accuracy. The aim of this study is to compare precise GPS-RTK transects across a section of the South Baltic coast in Poland with those obtained from a DEM based on high-resolution and high-accuracy images obtained by a wind-resistant, high-quality fixed-wing UAV during beyond visual line of sight operation (BVLOS). Different land cover classes, slope inclination, and general curvature, as well as surface roughness, were taken into consideration as possible factors influencing the uncertainty. The study revealed that marram grass greatly affects the accuracy of the UAV-derived model and that the uncertainty of the UAV-derived DEM increases together with increasing slope inclination and, to a lesser degree, with increasing general slope curvature. We showed that sediment budget determinations with the use of a UAV-based DEM are correct only where grass cover is sparse, in our study, up to 20% of the area.

A recently elaborated lichenometric dating curve for SE Iceland based on an analysis of the sizefrequency gradient has been tested on moraines of Fláajökull, a southeastern outlet glacier from the Vatnajökull ice-cap. The moraines were previously dated based on different sources of information, mostly: glaciological, cartographical and historical. During 2005, 3877 thalli of Rhizocarpon agg. were measured on five moraine ridges deposited since the Little Ice Age maximum. Exceptionally large lichens should not be used for lichenometrical dating of Fláajökull moraines. Instead a method of large thalli reduction has been applied to the moraines. Obtained data correlate relatively well with previous dating of the moraines, and confirm the late 19th century maximum of LIA for Fláajökull. A consistent difference in the size-frequency gradient was observed between lichen populations growing on proximal, distal and upper sides of stones. Our data shed further light on the use of the size-frequency gradient method and provide information regarding lichen dynamics dependent on environmental conditions.

This commentary critically evaluates concepts of extending the term permafrost to any parts of an active glacier. The whole mass of any glacier is at zero centigrade or below (cryotic), except for non-ice inclusions at the glacier surface. Therefore, if glacial ice is considered a monomineral rock, then any glacier constitutes a perennially cryotic ground (i.e., permafrost), according to the purely thermal definition. However, extending the term permafrost to active glaciers introduces misconceptions, rather than a clarification of important geological terms.