Airborne gravity data over Marguerite Bay collected with a Windracers Ultra UAV (2023/24 season)

Airborne gravity data provides insight into the regional subsurface geology and tectonic history. This dataset includes processed airborne data collected over Marguerite Bay using an iCorous strapdown gravity sensor. The gravity sensor was mounted in a Windracers Ultra UAV, serial TD-02. Gravity data was collected at a mean altitude of 500 m on nine flights between 120 and 260 km long, originating from Rothera Research Station. The flight pattern covered an area of 24 km by 75 km, with lines spaced 2 km apart. Data has an along line resolution of ~2 km. The survey targeted a tectonic break between different sectors of the Antarctic Peninsula identified in existing magnetic data. The survey was flown as part of the Innovate UK SWARM project demonstrating the utility of the Windracers Ultra as a platform for environmental science. This study was funded by Innovate UK through their Future flight challenge support for the "Protecting environments with unmanned aerial vehicle swarms" project (reference: 10023377). We thank BAS operations for their support and specifically the BAS air unit and ground support staff whose close cooperation and engagement with the UAV deployment made the project successful. We also thank staff at Windracers and Distributed avionics who provided remote support for UAV operations across the field season.