Technology

Drones for geophysics taking offDespite some limitations and challenges, unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming a viable means for conducting an ever-growing number of survey types

Despite some limitations and challenges, unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming a viable means for conducting an ever-growing number of survey types

By Graham Chandler

February 22, 2021

GPR UAV integrated system being used in Greenland. Courtesy of UGCS.

A boom lift is not a typical tool geophysicists use when scouting landscapes for mineral deposits, but it is something Ronald Bell needed in the summer of 2019 to allow him to perform a magnetic survey of a four-square mile patch of Canadian Shield south of the Eagle mine in the upper peninsula of Michigan – a survey that he conducted using a drone.

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