Starting around the 23rd of June and lasting up to a week, a helicopter towing a large hoop from a cable will begin making low-level flights over portions of Johnson, Nemaha, Otoe, and Richardson Counties as part of a geological and aquifer mapping study.
The helicopter will fly along pre-planned flight paths relatively low to the ground at 100-200 feet above the surface. A sensor that resembles a large hula-hoop will be towed beneath the helicopter to measure tiny electromagnetic signals that can be used to map features below Earth’s surface.
The Aqua Geo Frameworks, LLC. (AGF) study will be conducted by the specialty airborne geophysical survey company SkyTEM ApS, under a AGF contract. The helicopter will be operated by experienced pilots from Livewire Aviation who are specially trained for the low-level flying required for geophysical surveys. The company works with the FAA to ensure flights are safe and in accordance with U.S. law. Surveys do not occur directly above populated areas.
AGF-led studies have recently used this type of aerial survey to inform groundwater investigations around the country, including Nebraska, Iowa, Colorado, Wyoming and California. By using cutting-edge airborne geophysical technology, AGF scientists efficiently obtain critical information about groundwater resources over large areas, without the need for intensive ground-based work.
This work is part of a Nemaha Natural Resources District (NNRD) project partly funded by the Nebraska Water Sustainability Fund. Information may be found at the Nemaha NRD website: www.nemahanrd.org. This work is also part of the Eastern Nebraska Water Resources Assessment (ENWRA). More Information may be found at https://www.enwra.org/aem2023.html.
