PHOTOGRAPHY
An institution on the ground, updating Ordnance Sur vey maps actually begins in the air, explains
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The Ordnance Survey (OS) represents a national institution, everyday product and unsung endeavours since 1791. Our nation was first painstakingly mapped with chains, interwar it was updated using theodolite - introducing the distinctive trig pillar - and since has been refined by satellite positioning and aerial survey.
Though synonymous with paper maps, app usage and sales soaring during lockdown, the business of digital geographic data forms over 90 per cent of OS turnover. This underpins transport, retail, construction, insurance – even buying property or flicking a light switch.
Obtaining the precise photography updating our digital, national map is the job of the OS Air Unit and pilots of aerial specialists DEA at Gamston, Nottinghamshire. Their twin-engine survey aircraft carries a £1m, gyroscopically stabilised camera with five lenses resolving tiny details.
Their systematic, three-year sweep of Great Britain’s 243,241km2 delivered a record 95,000km2 worth of photographs in 2022. Weather permitting, they fly in constant rotation from March to October, taking 150,000 images annually. Pointing perfectly vertically, this photography contributes to the national cyclic revision of all OS data and maps.
The OS is our only agency with a nationwide overview across decades. “Great Britain is continually changing,” says production manager Stefan Korna , whose team could identify anywhere in the country from above, particularly coastlines. “The end game is we love the job and want to get in the sky to capture that imagery.”
“It’s just a great job, I love it,” says air camera operator Roger Nock. “We’re the official photographers of Great Britain. We only fly when the weather is great so I’ve got this rose-tinted view where the whole country is perfect every time!”
Here is a selection of pictures from ten areas of the UK coast taken by the OS aerial team:
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