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Geodesy

Field work in Geodesy

Geodesists on Tour: Circumnavigating Greenland by Helicopter

and March 30, 2026
Geodesists on Tour: Circumnavigating Greenland by Helicopter
Enjoying the view after a long day in the field. Picture cortesy by Jean-Marie Bärtsch.

  Greenland, the world’s largest island, has one of the most challenging environments for geodetic measurements. Maintaining GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) stations here isn’t just about precision – it’s about ensuring data continuity in an area that’s constantly moving. This is the behind-the-scenes story of a 15,000 km journey around Greenland: five weeks of helicopter-bas ...[Read More]

Geodesists on Tour: Taking Greta Gravimeter to the North

and September 27, 2024
Geodesists on Tour: Taking Greta Gravimeter to the North

Summer is coming to an end in the northern hemisphere, and it usually signals the end of the field season – at least in northern Europe. During the field season, we mostly take our absolute gravimeter (we call her Greta) to measure gravity at various locations across Sweden. Occasionally, we even take Greta to other countries – but that’s a story for another time.   Who is G ...[Read More]

Geodesists on Tour: On a Campaign in the Arctic with a Giraf(f)e in the Aircraft

and November 6, 2023
Geodesists on Tour: On a Campaign in the Arctic with a Giraf(f)e in the Aircraft
First view of the Greenland east coast after crossing the Denmark Strait

  Way too early on a Saturday morning in late June 2023 I woke up and started my travel to a small airport in Akureyri, North-East Iceland. This is the location of an Icelandic charter company called Norlandair that we used for our airborne geophysical surveys and logistic operations in the Arctic. For a few months I had been preparing a survey to test a new quantum-based technology for airbo ...[Read More]

Geodesists on Tour: GNSS measurements in East Africa

and March 23, 2022
Geodesists on Tour: GNSS measurements in East Africa
Installation of site UGN6 at the Queen’s Pavilion (Uganda). Photo Credit: D. Sarah Stamps.

  Africa hosts the world’s most extensive subaerial rift system on Earth known as the East African Rift System (EARS). It stretches over 5000 km from the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden intersection in the north to the Southwest Indian Spreading Ridge south of South Africa. East-West, the EARS spans the eastern border of the Democratic Republic of Congo across to eastern Madagascar over 3000 km. The ...[Read More]