Antarctic Survey Work

Their visit, which offered opportunities to cover several objectives at once,  was made in conjunction with other key stakeholders including our principal user - Commander-in-Chief Fleet - Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, KCB OBE,  Commodore of Portsmouth Flotilla Andrew Cameron, Director of the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Professor Nick Owen, and Deputy Head of the Polar Regions Unit at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Rob Bowman. They travelled together via the MoD airbridge to the Falkland Islands and then a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) DASH 7 aircraft to the BAS Base at Rothera.

The Falklands en-route afforded a valuable opportunity to discuss chart user perspectives with the Commanding and Navigating officers from HM Ships Nottingham, Cleyde and RFA Grey Rover, before heading to Rothera in Antarctica.

They embarked in HMS Endurance at Rothera. She is currently on an 18 month deployment and in the austral summer months of this period simultaneously supports our national Antarctic Treaty obligations, gathers survey data for UKHO, and supports the scientific research of the BAS.

Endurance is equipped with the latest hull mounted Multi-Beam Echo Sounder and produces and processes high volume high fidelity data while her two Survey Motor Boats work with field parties closer to shore. Her field parties are supported logistically by her two Lynx helicopters which also carry out vertical and oblique aerial photography in support of the survey work

Mike and Ian were able to see the onboard survey work and that being done offshore by the field survey teams and their boats.

Mike valued the opportunities to spend time with our key stakeholders and the ability to achieve a longstanding objective to understand at how survey data is collected and the controls that are required to reduce errors, and then to see the processing work done onboard before rendering to UKHO.  In this it completed his witnessing the missing jigsaw piece for him in the end-to-end process that delivers ‘The Work' that is signed off at UKHO.

During the visit Mike and Ian also joined in an onboard seminar of stakeholders into the future replacement of Endurance and discussed the extension of a MOU with BAS for better data exchange. Both Mike and Ian have subsequently followed up on some issues and ideas that came to light in their visit.

Make your comment:
Name:
Your comment:
Code: Please enter the code you see in the picture