## 2 Historical Data
### Aerial Photography in the Polar Regions
#### 2.1.2 The Antarctic Peninsula  
The Antarctic Peninsula has the best aerial photography coverage on the Antarctic continent. Much of this was completed under the auspices of the U.K. Royal Navy, the British Antarctic Survey and its predecessors (see Table 1). Beyond the Peninsula, U.S. reconnaissance did span much of the wider continent. Additionally, other countries (e.g., Germany, Norway) completed smaller regional surveys, often attached to Antarctic territorial claims. For this reason, although significant international coverage is present on the Peninsula, there are many regions on the continent with solely U.S. coverage. The earliest aerial photography in the Antarctic Peninsula was flown by private expeditions led by [PERSON] (1928-1930) and [PERSON] (1935) and by the British Graham Land Expedition (1934-1937). The oblique aerial photographs yielded much valuable information, but were not used for rigorous mapping. The first aerial survey sortie took place on the German Antarctic Expedition of 1938-1939 in Neuschwabenland, as part of making a territorial claim for Germany. The photographs were used for mapping by [PERSON] in 1942. The first extensive aerial photography coverage was acquired by the Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition (RARE) in 1947 using Fairchild T2 Trimetrogon cameras. Trimetrogon photography uses three cameras (vertical and left- and right-looking obliques) to give horizon-to-horizon coverage. The image quality is very high for these photographs, but they are difficult to use for photogrammetry. They were flown in long exploratory flight lines rather than for systematic coverage, and only the vertical photography component of the Trimetrogon arrangement is suitable for accurate, rather than reconnaissance, topographic mapping applications. Unfortunately, the negatives and calibration metadata have been lost, and the lenses in these cameras typically have high distortion levels [4]. The Falkland Islands Dependencies Aerial Survey Expedition (FIDASE) 1956-1957 acquired the first systematic vertical aerial photography and ground survey for photogrammetry for the northwest part of the Antarctic Peninsula [22,23]. The photography was flown at a usual altitude of 13,500 feet and was planned for photogrammetric mapping with 60% overlap and 15% sidelap; imagery has been scanned and is digitally available through the United States Geological Survey (USGS; [[https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/](https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/)]([https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/](https://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/))). The photography was used for 1:200,000 and 1:250,000 scale topographic mapping by the U.K. Department of Overseas Surveys (DOS) throughout the 1960s and 1970s (e.g., [24]). This extensive campaign remains the largest attempt at systematic regional coverage of vertical, photogrammetric quality aerial photography coverage and is still the best available aerial photography for large areas of the Antarctic Peninsula. These DOS maps are still the only systematic photogrammetric mapping scheme for the Antarctic Peninsula, but unfortunately, only coverage of the Peninsula to 68\({}^{\circ}\)S was completed. The maps were a great advance over previous mapping, which was based on plane-tabling and surveyors' sketches on overland traverses. However, the small scale and the large contour interval (100 m) severely restrict their usefulness as a record of the glacier surfaces, and the accuracy of the photogrammetry is not quantified. During the late 1960s, the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy carried out extensive Trimetrogon aerial photography coverage of large parts of Antarctica, including the Antarctic Peninsula, as the basis for a series of reconnaissance maps at 1:250,000 scale. This photography is known as Trimetrogon Antarctica (TMA). It was flown more systematically than the RARE Trimetrogon photography, but still has the constraints of only the vertical segment being suitable for highly accurate work and the use of metrogon lenses.