Abstract:

Many exposed nunataks locate in the Grove Mountains of the Antarctic inland, and the majority of those elevations have not been measured yet. The elevations of Mason Peak and Wilson Ridge are precisely determined by the Grove Team of CHINARE-26 in 2010. The Mason Peak turns out to be the highest of the Grove Mountains. Considering the Mason Peak and Wilson Ridge are difficult to climb due to their cragginess, we firstly select three control points on the ice surface near the Mason Peak and position them with GPS. Thus, the accurate elevations of Mason Peak and Wilson Ridge can be calculated from three directions using forward intersection and trigonometric leveling by setting precision theodolite on the chosen control points. It has solved the puzzle of their geodetic height in geography. The result provides important information which can be referred as highly precise control points for Antarctic surveying and mapping. This paper elaborates how to measure and compute the elevation of the mountains, and analyses the principal elements that influence the accuracy of trigonometry leveling such as the determination of refraction coefficient K, the observing structure and the distance.

Key words: forward intersection