Innovative geophysical surveying with unmanned aircraft systems

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Unmanned aircraft systems (UASs) bring a new perspective to studies of our natural environment. By flying at lower altitude, along flight lines spaced more closely together, and at speeds slower than conventional manned aircraft, they allow the acquisition of data at very high spatial resolution. The application of UASs in geophysical surveying is a very vibrant field of research with several ongoing projects involving UASs instrumented with different sensors such as magnetometers, radioactivity detectors, and imaging systems. *** Much effort has been devoted to designing UASs specifically for geophysical surveying. This research program takes a different approach and aims at making the most of commercial off-the-shelf UASs. By flying them in an innovative fashion, and combining onboard sensors, new datasets can be acquired to inform geological interpretation. The long-term objective is to add UAS flights to the geoscientist's toolbox. The emphasis is on the magnetic geophysical method, with a bold advance towards the implementation of the electromagnetic method on UASs. *** The research on UAS magnetic surveying will be centered on a flight program performed by rotary-wing UASs. Flights with repeated lines at different altitudes, straight vertical lines, and tightly-spaced lines carefully oriented in 3D will be performed. The flight datasets will be analyzed to derive information about seasonal near-surface geological processes, the effects of surface conditions on magnetic data, and to map the spatial variations of the Earth's magnetic field. *** As a first step towards the goal of using UASs to perform electromagnetic surveys, a hybrid system where the transmitter is at the surface of the ground and the receiver on the UAS flying above will be built. The main design challenges are the mitigation of the interference between the noise generated by the UAS and the electromagnetic signal from the subsurface, stringent positioning and timing constraints, and the requirement for a powerful transmitter. The electromagnetic datasets acquired by the system will capture subtle variations in electrical conductivity in the subsurface at unprecedented spatial resolution. *** Canada is determined to play a leading role internationally in the development and commercialization of UAS technology. The number of Canadian companies with some level of UAS involvement grew from 88 to 312 between 2008 and 2014, and the economic value of the Canadian civilian UAS market for the period 2015-2024 is projected to range between $100M-$260M. A report commissioned by the National Research Council of Canada in 2014 identified oil, gas and mineral surveys as one of the three opportunities for Canada to purse the most vigorously. This proposal contributes to this effort as the 4 HQP trained during this research program will have the specialized skills needed to be strong contributors to the emergence of this sector of the economy.