Aerial photography at Heard Island 1987/88

Aerial photographs of Heard Island taken by 1987/88 ANARE.

The information below was taken from the ANARE report prepared after the Heard Island visit.

PHOTOGRAPHIC ACTIVITIES, 1987/88.

Eric J. Woehler

Movie and aerial photography were undertaken during the 87/88 visit.

AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

The aerial photography was limited to two days, concurrent with the resupply visit by MV Nella Dan during Voyage 2, 18 and 19 October 1987.

A Linhoff camera was mounted in one (HRK) of the two Hughes 500D helicopters on board and two 100 metre rolls of 70mm film were exposed. The first roll was exposed at Spit Island and North and South Spit on 18 October. The second roll was exposed around the Four Bays region, Saddle Point, Hoseason Beach and the archaeological site at Sealers Corner, Corinthian Bay on 19 October. Details of each roll are given in Table 1.

Table 1. Details of aerial photography (M = magnetic)

Exposures Height Bearing Subject

Roll 1 18 October 1987

001-050 300' 130 degrees M Spit Island (harems)

051-102 300' 310 degrees Spit Island (harems)

103-139 300' 120 degrees Spit Island (harems)

140-175 300' 310 degrees Spit Island (harems)

176-252 500' 310 degrees Spit Point towards Dovers Moraine (South Spit)

253-303 400'-500' 300 degrees Spit Point towards Spit Camp (North Spit)

Roll 2 19 October 1987

020-117 040'-700' 330 degrees M Archaeological site, Sealers Corner Corinthian Bay rising from 040' to 700' (Exp 070) then down to 500-550'

118-124 200' Seal harems on Walrus Beach, Atlas Cove.

125-132 250' Flight path following coastline. Atlas Cove.

133-136 350' Flight path following coastline. Atlas Cove.

137-143 300' Seal harems on West Bay beach

144-165 280'-300' 000 degrees Seal harems on South West Bay beach

166-174 280'-300' 000 degrees Seal harems on South West Bay beach

175-231 300'-250' Seal harems on Corinthian Bay beach flight path following coastline.

232-247 300' 300 degrees Seal harems on Saddle Point saddle

248-254 300' 100 degrees Seal harems on Saddle Point saddle

255-257 300' 300 degrees Seal harems b/w Saddle Point and Challenger Glacier

258-271 250' 300 degrees Seal harems on Hoseason Beach

272-276 200' 300 degrees Seal harems on Hoseason Beach

277-285 350' Atlas Cove Station area

The aerial photography at the eastern Heard Island allowed for the harems on Spit Island to be censused as the island is otherwise inaccessible. Photography of the harems on North and South Spit and the Four Bays region provided the opportunity of verifying ground counts made on the same day. All exposures were made at approximately 60 knots ground-speed. Flying heights were generally confined to below 350' at Atlas Cove by a low cloud cover and to 500' at Spit by strong winds at higher altitudes.

Flight lines and photo centres representing the Roll 1 aerial photography (Film ANTC1082) are included in the aerial photography data available for download (see provided URL) and have Qinfo = 760. The flight lines and photo centres are provided as shapefiles and Qinfo is an attribute of the shapefiles.

See the Quality field for comments about the flight lines and photo centres.

The Australian Antarctic Division (AAD) has prints of some Roll 1 frames. They were stitched together, and glued to a presentation board but have since been separated from the board and stored in an archival box. Print = Y in the attribute table of the photo centres shapefile indicates there is a print for that frame. The prints are not available for loan outside the AAD.

Contact the Australian Antarctic Data Centre for access to the prints:

http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/requests/request.cfm