HR: 0800h
AN: GP11D-0883    [Abstracts]
TI: A Possibility of the Aeromagnetic Survey by a Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Ant-Plane
AU: * Funaki, M
EM: funaki@nipr.ac.jp
AF: National Institute of Polar Research, 9-10 Kaga 1 Itabasi, Tokyo, 173-8515 Japan
AB:  Magnetic surveys by helicopters and airplanes are a useful technique to estimate the geological structure under the ice sheets in Antarctica. However, it is not easy to employ this due to the transportation of the planes, logistic supports, security, and financial problems. Members of Ant-Plane Project have investigated the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV, Ant-Plane) for the solution of the problems. Recently the aeromagnetic survey is verified by a model airplane navigated by GPS and a magneto-resistant (MR) magnetometer. The airplane (Ant-Plane) consists of 2m wing length, 2-cycles and 2-cylinder 85cc gasoline engine, GPS navigation system by microcomputer and radio telemeter system. The total weight is 15kg including 2 litter fuels, the MR magnetometer, a video camera and an emergency parachute. The speed is 130 km/h and maximum height is 2000m. The magnetometer system consists of a 3- component MR magnetometer, GPS and data logger. Three components of magnetic field, latitude, longitude, altitude, number of satellite and time are recorded in every second during 3 hours. The sensitivity of the magnetometer is 7 nT and we use a total magnetic field intensity for magnetic analysis due to unknown heading of the plane. November 2003 we succeeded the magnetic survey by the Ant-Plane at the slope of Sakurajima Volcano, Kyushu, Japan. The plane rotated 9 times along the programmed route of about 4x1 km, total flight distance of 80 km, keeping the altitude of 700 m. Consequently we obtained almost similar field variation on the route. The maximum deviation of each course was less than 100 m. Therefore, we concluded that the aeromagnetic survey in the relatively large anomaly areas can be performed by Ant-Plane with the MR magnetometer system. Finally the plane flew up 1400m with a video camera to take the photo of active volcano Sakurajima (1117m). It succeeded to take photos of craters through steam from the volcano.
DE: 1517 Magnetic anomaly modeling
SC: Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism [GP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting