{"id":1257,"date":"2025-11-30T19:14:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/?p=1257"},"modified":"2025-11-30T19:15:22","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T18:15:22","slug":"drones4earth-weekend-2025-mapping-the-la-roussette-rock-glacier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/2025\/11\/30\/drones4earth-weekend-2025-mapping-the-la-roussette-rock-glacier\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones4Earth Weekend 2025: Mapping the La Roussette Rock Glacier"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-1024x576.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-1024x576.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-300x169.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-768x432.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image-1536x864.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/image.jpeg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last August, the Drones4Earth team went for its droning weekend. This is our annual event to practice flying drones, mapping, having a nice time and getting to know each other better. Following the suggestion of a member, we went to the Arolla Valley, in beautiful Valais.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The objective of the mission was to map the La Roussette rock glacier, a distinctive geomorphological landform consisting of rock debris and interstitial ground ice that descends along the west side of the mountain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rock glaciers, as permafrost creeping landforms, are important for understanding the status of mountain permafrost; changes in their surface and velocity can provide insight into the relationship between climate and frozen ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We went with two quadcopter drones: a DJI Matrice RTK drone equipped with a full-frame Zenmuse P1 camera and a smaller Autel drone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We parked the car near the camp ground in the valley and hiked up to the base of the glacier, to a wide open space to launch the drones. It took about 50 minutes and 2 flights with the Matrice to complete the mission, for a total of 1800 pictures. The resulting 3D mesh can be seen below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We also had some fun with the smaller drone, filming some cool video and taking some aerial pictures of our group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sketchfab.com\/3d-models\/la-roussette-rock-glacier-20250816-f27cc28f09da4685a6784714ce1f1cee\">https:\/\/sketchfab.com\/3d-models\/la-roussette-rock-glacier-20250816-f27cc28f09da4685a6784714ce1f1cee<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"768\" src=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2-1024x768.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1264\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/arolla2.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"769\" src=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1-1024x769.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1263\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1-1024x769.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1-1536x1153.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/arolla1.jpg 1600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall it was a great occasion to flex our droning muscles and enjoy a beautiful end of the summer day in the Swiss Alps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last August, the Drones4Earth team went for its droning weekend. This is our annual event to practice flying drones, mapping, having a nice time and getting to know each other better. Following the suggestion of a member, we went to the Arolla Valley, in beautiful Valais. The objective of the mission was to map the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1257","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1257"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1266,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1257\/revisions\/1266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dronesforearth.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}