NASA Earth science researchers last month traveled to Turrialba Volcano, near
San Jose, Costa Rica, to fly a Dragon Eye unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) -- a
small electric aircraft equipped with cameras and sensors -- into the volcano’s
sulfur dioxide plume and over its summit crater, to study Turrialba’s chemical
environment. The project is designed to improve the remote-sensing capability of
satellites and computer models of volcanic activity.
The study, called
“In Situ Validation and Calibration of Remotely Sensed Volcanic Emission Data
and Models,” launched 10 flights between March 11-14, 2013, into the volcanic
plume and along the rim of the Turrialba summit crater approximately 10,500 feet
above sea level (ASL). The launch site was located at 8,900 feet ASL, and
flights ranged up to 12,500 feet ASL, more than 2,000 feet above the Turrialba
summit. Project objectives included improving satellite data research products,
such as maps of concentration and distribution of volcanic gases, and
transport-pathway models of volcanic plumes.
During the research
flights, the team coordinated its data gathering with the Advanced Spaceborne
Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER) instrument on NASA’s Terra spacecraft,
allowing scientists to compare sulfur dioxide concentration measurements from
the satellite with measurements taken from within the plume. Scientists believe
computer models derived from this study will contribute to safeguarding the
National and International Airspace System, improve global climate predictions,
and mitigate environmental hazards (e.g., sulfur dioxide volcanic smog or “vog”)
for people who live around volcanoes.
A key factor of such models is the intensity and character of the volcanic
activity located near the eruption vent. For instance, knowing the height of ash
and gas concentrations, and temperatures over the vent during an eruption are
important initial factors for any model that predicts the direction of the
volcanic plume.
“It is very difficult to gather data from within volcanic
eruption columns and plumes because updraft wind speeds are very high and high
ash concentrations can quickly destroy aircraft engines,” said David Pieri, the
project’s principal investigator and a research scientist at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif. “Such flight environments can be
very dangerous to manned aircraft. Volcanic eruption plumes may stretch for
miles from a summit vent, and detached ash clouds can drift hundreds to
thousands of miles from an eruption site.
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