Application of aerial photographs to registration of dynamic phenomena in polar environment

Aerial photographs were taken during the Antarctic expedition of the Polish Academy of Science. A helicopter was used to make an aerial photographic survey of the area surrounding Admiralty Bay, King George Island in the South Shetland Archipelago. Photographs were taken using a simple, self-constructed, multispectral camera. The photographic materials were used to compile a map of the changes of glacier fronts in Admiralty Bay, to compare with the British Admiralty map which was made twenty years ago. This map shows areas not covered by snow and ice during the summer. Apart from long-term changes of extent of glacier fronts, photographs were used to analyze surface dynamical phenomena in Admiralty Bay. There were many growlers, very small icebergs, on the surface of the bay, and these were used to measure the velocity and the direction of surface mass drift. Simultaneously, the melt-water on the surface, with a strong concentration of suspended materials, was treated as an indicator of the tidal cycle in Admiralty Bay