REAL LIFE NEWS: USING SATELLITES TO SPOT VOLCANOES THAT COULD ERUPT
by Hazed
A team of scientists in the UK has undertaken a project to monitor every land volcano on Earth, by using data from two satellites that map the planet’s surface.
There are about 1,500 volcanoes worldwide that are potentially active, but only a small number are monitored properly – such as Mount Etna that erupted last month. The new monitoring system will watch for changes in the shape of the ground as magma rising from the depths of the planet causes the ground above it to swell. This usually starts as a small movement on the side or top of a volcano, and it may not be noticeable to the eye – but it can be seen from space.
Satellite data will record this change and it will be processed automatically, then the system will alert scientists if a change needs to be followed up. This will allow people living in the area to be warned that an eruption might be on the way. For the volcanoes that currently don’t get monitored, this could save many lives.
The project is part of the Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET). It has conducted trials in Iceland and is now running in prototype form across Europe and parts of Asia. Later it will be extended to Africa and Central and South America, regions which have some very big explosive volcanoes that are only covered by limited ground surveys.
COMET team member Dr Juliet Biggs, from Bristol University, explained: “In Ecuador, for example, there are roughly 80 volcanoes, four of which are erupting at any one time, and a very small staff to keep an eye on it all. So, they will be grateful of the assistance.”
The project uses data from the two Sentinel-1 radar satellites, launched by the European Space Agency. This pair of platforms image the entire land surface of the Earth repeatedly and frequently, and send the data home using a high-speed laser link. The COMET facilities can then compare sequences of photos to spot small changes in the behaviour of volcanoes.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-39642372
