Data Acquisition and Lessons Learnt from Geophysical Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) Surveys in Northern Canada

This paper discusses data acquisition and lessons learnt during a geophysical Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) survey in Northern Canada. The goal of the project was to identify areas that may have buried waste materials using a magnetometer attached to an RPAS. RPAS aeromagnetic surveys have a good coverage (and coverage rate) and high resolution compared to conventional walking terrestrial surveys (Everett 2007, Nieldzielski 2018 and Walter at al. 2019) especially in remote locations with variable terrains. The RPAS was able to cover an area of 55 hectares over two days of surveying. Twelve major and twelve minor anomalies were identified in the magnetometer data. Photogrammetry was also collected over a 315-hectare area. This included a high resolution ortho-mosaic as well as a digital terrain model and a digital surface model. The RPAS magnetometer survey was highly successful at identifying areas with strong magnetic signatures as well as areas with weaker signals. The major anomalies identified all have very strong signals with the clear high and low pattern that is expected. The photogrammetry provided high-quality imagery of the area as well as surface models and greatly assisted in the interpretation of the magnetic signatures. RPAS surveys in northern parts of Canada have specific logistic and acquisition challenges that affect the operation of the survey but do not affect the quality of the data.