{"id":38544,"date":"2026-03-12T11:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38544\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T11:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:41:09","slug":"windracers-drones-to-map-greenland-glaciers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/38544\/","title":{"rendered":"Windracers Drones To Map Greenland Glaciers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Having previously been deployed with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to study the Antarctic Peninsula, Windracers ULTRA heavy lift drones will assist research at the opposite pole as part of BAS\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/giantgreenland.com\/fieldwork\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">GIANT programme<\/a> (Greenland Ice sheet to AtlaNtic Tipping points from ice loss). The mission will seek to better understand how freshwater from glacial melt is impacting currents in the North Atlantic and improve warning systems for dangerous climate tipping points.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>ULTRA will conduct long range autonomous missions over the Petermann Glacier in northwest Greenland, using ice-penetrating radar to map the ice and floating glacier and the hidden valleys beneath. The GIANT mission will see drones deployed alongside marine robots, satellites and sensors to better understand how the glacier interacts with the Arctic Ocean waters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re in a moment where our tools have finally caught up with our questions,\u201d said GIANT lead Dr Kelly Hogan, a marine geophysicist at BAS. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWith autonomous vehicles, advanced sensors, and powerful modelling &#8211; boosted by AI &#8211; we can explore glacier-ocean interactions in ways that were unimaginable just a few years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Capable of carrying payloads of over 150kg and flying up to 2,000km, Windracers ULTRA was developed primarily as a logistics vehicle to help deliver aid and supplies in Africa, where road infrastructure is often insufficient. However, speaking to The Engineer ahead of a forthcoming feature on the technology, Windracers founder and chairman Stephen Wright explained that scientific missions were always part of the plan. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI&#8217;ve always had an interest in supporting academic research,\u201d said Wright. \u201cSo when the opportunity came up to support the BAS across a range of research topics, it was something which I was very keen to support.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Windracers first approached BAS in 2017, with drones eventually deployed to Antarctica in 2024, flying 25 missions over six weeks. Having proven its mettle in a polar environment, the ULTRA is well prepped for long range missions over Greenland, where it is also planned to help study the local narwhal population. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOperating in Greenland is about more than distance, it is about reliability and resilience in an environment where there is little margin for error,\u201d said Rob Datson, chief flight operations officer at Windracers. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWindracers ULTRA is designed to fly long-range missions autonomously and carry the sensors scientists need with confidence to create new data and see the unseen. Windracers is excited to be working with the British Antarctic Survey once again and to support this important research.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having previously been deployed with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) to study the Antarctic Peninsula, Windracers ULTRA heavy&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38545,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[4579,11627,57,21995,21994],"class_list":{"0":"post-38544","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-greenland","8":"tag-drones","9":"tag-glaciers","10":"tag-greenland","11":"tag-uavs","12":"tag-windracers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116216023574516086","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38544"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38544\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38545"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}