Lmst

In need of a timeline cleanse - so here are a few memories from my first Antarctic expedition - SIPEX2007. It took place in September, pretty much still winter. That was the point, to go and find a lot of ice.

And we did.

It's also a time when we thought we were going to change the game of high resolution topographic analysis of sea ice using lidar, imagery and computer vision - validated by rigorous ground observations. And use what we found to validate ship and satellite observations...

Good days.

#polarResearch #Antarctica #remoteSensing #CalVal

An iceberg corner with the shadow of a helicopter on it. HOw big are Antarctic bergs? Really big

RSV Aurora Australis parked in sea ice at night, all lit up. A stream of light from the ship out to the right is somebody's headlamp

"Dragonscale ice" - the first time it was ever observed/ described. A very thick (metres) layer of very small (10-30cm) ice floes formed in very cold, turbelent conditions deep in the pack ice interior

Views from 12000ft, cutting laps for making maps

#aerialSurvey #gischat

Very wet wander from Katoomba to Wentworth falls today. Biggest outing since knee injury, and a beautiful place to spend a rainy day.

#Australia #RainyHiking #BlueMountains #Waterfalls

the iconic three sisters region at Katoomba. High, steep gold and brown surrounded by green forest

Empress falls long exposure. Water cascading down steep cliffs into a pool surrounded by ferns

A section of trail in a lush green forest. A bright yellow gum on the left (these are the best! in the rain)

Sometimes even the trail is a waterfall! water cascading down cut sandstone stairs to the left. The waterfall on the right is just reclaiming some space

Hi #Sydney - back for another stint of trying to access very busy airspace and find clear skies for survey work 🛩️📸

#aerialPhotography #aerialSurvey #hotelRoomLyfe #aviationOperations

Sydney central business district under clouds. Shot out of a dash 8 window on approach to Kingsford Smith airport

hello ocean. I've missed you! 🌊♥️

looking down a walkway to a beach. golden early morning light on the sand, waves breaking in the distance

close up of sand, seaweed and a cuttlefish shell

I am missing my #mountainTime - so here's a memory. An incredible few days of solo hiking across the Fagaras and then Piatra Craiului in Romania, after #FOSS4G 2019. Enabled by clients who paid enough for @spatialised@www.spatialised.net to have a marketing budget, a program committee who accepted my talk and a very generous local geospatialist and drone pilot who got me to the start - and then the epic hitchhike of the ages between Fagaras and Zarnesti, language barriers crossed by a love of the mountains . The last sketch and poem I made high up on Piatra Craiului...

Says it all really. It's been a privilege to meet so many mountains. I remain conquered by all of you...

A panoramic view of the Fagaras mountains, Romania

Details! A purple flower in the Fagaras mountains

A drawing of a ridgeline and small poem reading: "I come to the mountains to be conquered. Again, and again... To remind myself I belong to this Earth, and not the other way around"

Because we all need some pelicans to cross our screen from time to time... trailing sparkly sparkles!

#droneLyfe #ecology #bioculturalSurvey

needed a new phone, so a new camera is in my life also! low light photography was a key weakness in the old one, much improved now.

Night time at a little lake in Norwest, Sydney

Photographing a helicopter flying over an iceberg using a helicopter flying over an iceberg. Prydz Bay, Antarctica, 2009.

#research #calval #seaice #Antarctica

A photograph of a helicopter flying over an iceberg, shot with a downward looking camera in another helicopter flying above

A blast from the icy past - deploying MetOcean buoys on drifting pack ice by helicopter on the #SIPEX2007 voyage off East Antarctica. The buoy transmitted position and met data as long as its battery lasted, providing critical information on sea ice dynamics. It was one of quite a few deployed that year.

Because it floats, the idea is that eventally it will be recovered from a beach somewhere. I'm not sure it ever was.

...and yes, the helicopter is running the whole time! There's a whole process of leaping out with an ice drill to test thickness before it lands. It was far from the ship or land, so the helicopter kept rotors moving while we worked. Nothing like some time pressure!

#seaice #InternationalPolarYear #helicopters #fieldwork

An orange and silver metocean (drift and temperature) buoy stuck into sea ice in the foreground. A red and white helicopter is behind it (Eurocopter AS-350 squirrel), with a person at the rear passenger door. Sea ice extends to the horizon against a cloudy sky

6am at Lake Weeroona, Bendigo.

#bendigo #kayaktrips #predawn

A predawn photo at lake weeroona. Scattered clouds in the dark orange to light blue sky are reflected in the still lake. Dark trees surround, with car and town lights on the distance

Emus are rad. No argument.

#australia #emupost #emuverse

3 emus - large flightless birds endemic to Australia - next to a fence in a dry paddock. Two in the sun, one in the shade, 300 per cent of awesomeness

Melbourne airport - a fairly unique view at 6000ft!

#aerialSurvey #aerialphotography

An almost overhead view of Melbourne airport taken from an aerial survey airplane at 6000ft

Mt Gambier, a town built on an extinct volcano with two crater lakes.

Mt Gambier, an extinct volcano in south eastern South Australia with two crater lakes! One blue, one green. A town is built on its sides.

Suburban fringes north of Melbourne, and a river. Life at 5000 feet!
#aerialSurvey #aerialPhotography

Housing development at the edge of suburbia, showing closely packed dark-roofed houses with very little green space

Paddocks and hedges in semi rural urban fringes

Suburban edges - highways, houses, and a water dam

Riverland - the Murray River near Swan Hill, winding it's meandering way west across the plans. Green irrigated fields stand out against the summer brown. The river carries a forest fringe that was once a lot wider...

Through the office window today 🛩️📷

Spirit of Tasmania heading south from Melbourne

Views over and near Melbourne (Australia). I've been thinking I need to invest in a better camera while I have this particular office viewpoint 5000 feet (or sometimes less) up. #airborneSurvey #aerialphotography

A shallow coastline. Blue / green top half is the sea, with seagrass beds forming dark stripes. The lower tan/brown half is dry coastal farmland

Melbourne's central business district. Like so many others a grey collection of uncomfortable looking phalluses devoted to the extraction of value from some busywork task and recycling into some other busywork task as long as you wear an uncomfortable suit and out your neck in a noose it's all copacetic right?

A few green patches invade.. one in particular (lower right) is the heavily impounded rebel turf of the Marvel stadium. It is bad ass grass. Must be to deserve that prison...

A lot of train lines are visible lower centre. Moving squillions of people effectively in and out of their uncomfortable looking phalluses every day.

Our house does a blended Norwegian / Australian / Icelandic Christmas thing... Julenisse, a eucalyptus branch tree, chocolate and reading books for juleaften (Christmas eve). I think the Icelandic part came from icelanders we knew in Tromsø.. gifts are still a Christmas day thing, although the big heavy Christmas lunch has gone by the way (just remembering i forgot to buy bringebærsyltetoy for grotris tomorrow!)

And of course, the now almost decade long gingerbread house making and eating! (Christmas eve).

Bit of everything eh.. 🤔

Also just a couple of weeks ago it was looking like any kind of celebration is cancelled this year 😬. Pretty grateful any of this happened 🙏

A few views from part of the office this past week... the back seat of an aerocommander AC50. After all the planning and weather forecasting is done and before the data logging is done. Those office photos are not so interesting...

#aerialsurveying #datacollection

Aerial view of a small town and tidal river estuary on Australia's east coast near Sydney

Aerial view of a small town and prominent headland on Australia's east coast south of Sydney

Aerial view of a small town on Australia's east coast somewhere near Sydney

...from Northern Norway, 2022 - the finished 'mountain scene' pumpkin, and a collection from the kids.

It was a nice way to link our little Tromsø rekkehus-kommune, make a pile of jack o lanterns, sit outside, grill, watch for nordlys...

With so much craziness in the world, especially north of the equator, I hope everyone is taking this time to reflect, connect (and also disconnect from the matrix), make some peace with the coming winter... ❄️⛰️♥️

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