Event Description
Danielle Moyer, BEES PhD student, Drexel University
Drones & Volcanoes: Applications
of sUAS-Based Measurements in Eruption Clouds from Sinabung Volcano, Sumatra,
Indonesia
There are over 1,500 potentially
active volcanoes in the world, with approximately 10% of the Earth’s population
living in their close proximity. On average, 15 of these volcanoes erupt
every year in a way that threatens to disrupt air traffic. Mitigating the
hazards of airborne volcanic particles for aviation safety thus requires
accurate predictions as to the path of volcanic ash clouds. The Volcanic Ash
Advisory Centers employ a series of complex numerical models to track these
paths, however, the validity of forecasts produced by these models is highly
reliant on the quality of both atmospheric and volcanic input parameters,
including instantaneous mass eruption rate and particle size distribution. The
most pressing issue these centers are facing is that many of the essential
volcanological parameters are not measurable in real time at present. To
improve the community’s capacity to accurately measure inputs needed to produce
effective numerical models of airborne ash transport, my research is focused in
developing methods to use a Small Unmanned Aerial System (sUAS) to collect ash
samples in situ within the cloud, and determine the size distribution,
abundance, and nature of volcanic particles smaller than those currently being
measured. I will be discussing my early testing of such methods at Sinabung
volcano and my future work which will be completed at Mt. Merapi this
June.
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