The Greenland Drone Explorer: A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery

Daniel Frazier Carlson; Marie Ryan; Rehan Chaudhary; Max Boecke; Matthew Walsh; Pelle Tejsner; Dorte Krause-Jensen; Guillaume Jouvet; Karina Löffler; Jakob Abermann; Robert Jackisch; Jeffrey T. Kerby; Søren Rysgaard; Urs Albert Treier; Ulrike Kleeberg

doi:10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123

The Greenland Drone Explorer: A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery

Daniel Frazier Carlson^*
, Marie Ryan
, Rehan Chaudhary
, Max Boecke
, Matthew Walsh
, Pelle Tejsner
, Dorte Krause-Jensen
, Guillaume Jouvet
, Karina Löffler
, Jakob Abermann
, Robert Jackisch
, Jeffrey T. Kerby
, Søren Rysgaard
, Urs Albert Treier
, Ulrike Kleeberg

^*Corresponding author for this work

Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde
Helmholtz Coastal Data Center, Institute of Coastal Ocean Dynamics
University of Greenland
Arctic Research Centre, Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University,
University of Lausanne
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz
Technische Universität Berlin
Scott Polar Research Institute
Arctic Research Center Aarhus University
Department of Biology, Ecoinformatics and Biodiversity

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS, or drones) have become standard tools across many scientific fields by enabling affordable, on-demand aerial surveys. A single sUAS survey can generate hundreds to thousands of overlapping images that, once processed, produce large raster products (orthomosaics and digital surface models) that are often many gigabytes in size, making adherence to the FAIR data principles difficult. Repositories such as Zenodo and PANGAEA satisfy the findability requirement through appropriate metadata and persistent identifiers, but they do not provide visualization or spatial browsing of geospatial raster imagery. Assessing whether an archived dataset is fit for reuse therefore requires downloading large files and importing them into specialized GIS software before any visual inspection is possible. The friction introduced by these
additional steps may limit reuse. Limited reuse is especially wasteful in remote regions such as Greenland, where sUAS surveys are expensive and logistically demanding to conduct and where features of interest from multiple disciplines are concentrated within the same small coastal footprints, giving each survey high cross-disciplinary reuse potential. To illustrate the value of visualization and spatial browsing for published sUAS datasets, we present the Greenland Drone Explorer (GDE), a WebGIS that aggregates dispersed, already-published Greenland
sUAS datasets and enables 2D and 2.5D preview of orthomosaics without download or GIS software. As a vendorneutral alternative to the proprietary platform on which GDE is built, we pair it with an open-source Jupyter notebook that reproduces the same capability by retrieving data from Zenodo, generating cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs, and displaying them in a browser-based map. Thus, GDE augments the baseline findability provided by repositories with spatial, visual discovery that may lower the barrier to reuse of dispersed sUAS raster imagery.

Original language	English
Article number	100123
Journal	Geomatica
Volume	78
Issue number	2026
Number of pages	8
ISSN	1925-4296
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123
Publication status	Published - Jul 2026

Keywords

Arctic
Uncrewed aerial systems
Uncrewed aerial vehicles
Geographical information systems
Data management

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Cite this

Carlson, D. F., Ryan, M., Chaudhary, R., Boecke, M., Walsh , M., Tejsner, P., Krause-Jensen, D., Jouvet, G., Löffler, K., Abermann, J., Jackisch, R., Kerby, J. T., Rysgaard, S., Treier, U. A., & Kleeberg, U. (2026). The Greenland Drone Explorer: A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery. Geomatica, 78(2026), Article 100123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123

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title = "The Greenland Drone Explorer: A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery",

abstract = "Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS, or drones) have become standard tools across many scientific fields by enabling affordable, on-demand aerial surveys. A single sUAS survey can generate hundreds to thousands of overlapping images that, once processed, produce large raster products (orthomosaics and digital surface models) that are often many gigabytes in size, making adherence to the FAIR data principles difficult. Repositories such as Zenodo and PANGAEA satisfy the findability requirement through appropriate metadata and persistent identifiers, but they do not provide visualization or spatial browsing of geospatial raster imagery. Assessing whether an archived dataset is fit for reuse therefore requires downloading large files and importing them into specialized GIS software before any visual inspection is possible. The friction introduced by these additional steps may limit reuse. Limited reuse is especially wasteful in remote regions such as Greenland, where sUAS surveys are expensive and logistically demanding to conduct and where features of interest from multiple disciplines are concentrated within the same small coastal footprints, giving each survey high cross-disciplinary reuse potential. To illustrate the value of visualization and spatial browsing for published sUAS datasets, we present the Greenland Drone Explorer (GDE), a WebGIS that aggregates dispersed, already-published Greenland sUAS datasets and enables 2D and 2.5D preview of orthomosaics without download or GIS software. As a vendorneutral alternative to the proprietary platform on which GDE is built, we pair it with an open-source Jupyter notebook that reproduces the same capability by retrieving data from Zenodo, generating cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs, and displaying them in a browser-based map. Thus, GDE augments the baseline findability provided by repositories with spatial, visual discovery that may lower the barrier to reuse of dispersed sUAS raster imagery.",

keywords = "Arctic, Uncrewed aerial systems, Uncrewed aerial vehicles, Geographical information systems, Data management",

author = "Carlson, \{Daniel Frazier\} and Marie Ryan and Rehan Chaudhary and Max Boecke and Matthew Walsh and Pelle Tejsner and Dorte Krause-Jensen and Guillaume Jouvet and Karina L{\"o}ffler and Jakob Abermann and Robert Jackisch and Kerby, \{Jeffrey T.\} and S{\o}ren Rysgaard and Treier, \{Urs Albert\} and Ulrike Kleeberg",

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month = jul,

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Carlson, DF, Ryan, M, Chaudhary, R, Boecke, M, Walsh , M, Tejsner, P, Krause-Jensen, D, Jouvet, G, Löffler, K, Abermann, J, Jackisch, R, Kerby, JT, Rysgaard, S, Treier, UA & Kleeberg, U 2026, 'The Greenland Drone Explorer: A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery', Geomatica, vol. 78, no. 2026, 100123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123

TY - JOUR

T1 - The Greenland Drone Explorer

T2 - A WebGIS for browser-based visualization and spatial browsing of published UAS raster imagery

AU - Carlson, Daniel Frazier

AU - Ryan, Marie

AU - Chaudhary, Rehan

AU - Boecke, Max

AU - Walsh , Matthew

AU - Tejsner, Pelle

AU - Krause-Jensen, Dorte

AU - Jouvet, Guillaume

AU - Löffler, Karina

AU - Abermann, Jakob

AU - Jackisch, Robert

AU - Kerby, Jeffrey T.

AU - Rysgaard, Søren

AU - Treier, Urs Albert

AU - Kleeberg, Ulrike

PY - 2026/7

Y1 - 2026/7

N2 - Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS, or drones) have become standard tools across many scientific fields by enabling affordable, on-demand aerial surveys. A single sUAS survey can generate hundreds to thousands of overlapping images that, once processed, produce large raster products (orthomosaics and digital surface models) that are often many gigabytes in size, making adherence to the FAIR data principles difficult. Repositories such as Zenodo and PANGAEA satisfy the findability requirement through appropriate metadata and persistent identifiers, but they do not provide visualization or spatial browsing of geospatial raster imagery. Assessing whether an archived dataset is fit for reuse therefore requires downloading large files and importing them into specialized GIS software before any visual inspection is possible. The friction introduced by these additional steps may limit reuse. Limited reuse is especially wasteful in remote regions such as Greenland, where sUAS surveys are expensive and logistically demanding to conduct and where features of interest from multiple disciplines are concentrated within the same small coastal footprints, giving each survey high cross-disciplinary reuse potential. To illustrate the value of visualization and spatial browsing for published sUAS datasets, we present the Greenland Drone Explorer (GDE), a WebGIS that aggregates dispersed, already-published Greenland sUAS datasets and enables 2D and 2.5D preview of orthomosaics without download or GIS software. As a vendorneutral alternative to the proprietary platform on which GDE is built, we pair it with an open-source Jupyter notebook that reproduces the same capability by retrieving data from Zenodo, generating cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs, and displaying them in a browser-based map. Thus, GDE augments the baseline findability provided by repositories with spatial, visual discovery that may lower the barrier to reuse of dispersed sUAS raster imagery.

AB - Small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS, or drones) have become standard tools across many scientific fields by enabling affordable, on-demand aerial surveys. A single sUAS survey can generate hundreds to thousands of overlapping images that, once processed, produce large raster products (orthomosaics and digital surface models) that are often many gigabytes in size, making adherence to the FAIR data principles difficult. Repositories such as Zenodo and PANGAEA satisfy the findability requirement through appropriate metadata and persistent identifiers, but they do not provide visualization or spatial browsing of geospatial raster imagery. Assessing whether an archived dataset is fit for reuse therefore requires downloading large files and importing them into specialized GIS software before any visual inspection is possible. The friction introduced by these additional steps may limit reuse. Limited reuse is especially wasteful in remote regions such as Greenland, where sUAS surveys are expensive and logistically demanding to conduct and where features of interest from multiple disciplines are concentrated within the same small coastal footprints, giving each survey high cross-disciplinary reuse potential. To illustrate the value of visualization and spatial browsing for published sUAS datasets, we present the Greenland Drone Explorer (GDE), a WebGIS that aggregates dispersed, already-published Greenland sUAS datasets and enables 2D and 2.5D preview of orthomosaics without download or GIS software. As a vendorneutral alternative to the proprietary platform on which GDE is built, we pair it with an open-source Jupyter notebook that reproduces the same capability by retrieving data from Zenodo, generating cloud-optimized GeoTIFFs, and displaying them in a browser-based map. Thus, GDE augments the baseline findability provided by repositories with spatial, visual discovery that may lower the barrier to reuse of dispersed sUAS raster imagery.

KW - Arctic

KW - Uncrewed aerial systems

KW - Uncrewed aerial vehicles

KW - Geographical information systems

KW - Data management

U2 - 10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123

DO - 10.1016/j.geomat.2026.100123

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1925-4296

VL - 78

JO - Geomatica

JF - Geomatica

IS - 2026

M1 - 100123

ER -