Abstract
<jats:p>Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have gradually become an important technical platform for geophysical exploration because of their high mobility, low cost, adaptability to complex environments, and increasing capacity for autonomous operation. Conventional geophysical survey methods often face difficulties in equipment deployment, operational risk, and insufficient spatial resolution in mountain canyons, polar regions, volcanic areas, mining districts, and disaster-affected zones, whereas UAV platforms provide a new technical pathway for efficient, high-resolution, and low-disturbance geophysical observation. This review summarizes recent progress in UAV-based geophysical exploration, focusing on UAV platforms and intelligent control, UAV magnetic surveys, UAV gravimetry, UAV radiometric surveys, UAV electromagnetic surveys, UAV-based ground-penetrating radar, UAV seismic exploration, and UAV remote sensing for geological hazard monitoring. Although UAV geophysical exploration has made substantial progress, it still faces challenges related to payload capacity, sensor miniaturization, high-precision positioning, data quality control in complex environments, and multi-physics data fusion and interpretation.</jats:p>