Golder Associates have been hard at work testing what they call the Matrice-HydraSleeve method of sampling from pit lakes. We found this article while conducting research; and are happy to share the publication here: A Validated Method for Pit Lake Water Sampling Using Aerial Drones & Sampling Devices.
They used our standard Surface Water Adapter (SWA) with a SuperSleeve HydraSleeve mounted on a Matrice 600 drone to successfully sample 10 pit lakes in 4 USA states collecting 81 depth-specific samples. Data comparison validates the Matrice-HydraSleeve method as seen in this report.
Here's Golder's short YouTube video explaining this option.
Drone sampling of pit lakes (and other bodies of water) has been shown to improve safety and lower cost for sampling.
Using the HydraSleeve attached to a drone allows for depth-specific samples to be collected from deeper locations - in this study up to 122 meters.
These tests were conducted before we introduced our new ultra light weight Drone Cone Adapter (DCA). While the Matrice 600 (used in this study) has quite a heavy payload capacity and can handle the 2-liter SuperSleeve with the SWA Adapter; other drones have much lower payload capacity. Introduction of the DCA late in 2019 made this type of sampling an option for those drones with as litle as 2 pound payload capacity.
Here's our short video on the new Drone Cone Adapter.
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