VOLCANGAS · Volcanic gas and aerosol emissions: ground based remote sensing, atmospheric impact and modeling of magma degassing processes
FP6 — Marie Curie Actions (Human Resources and Mobility)
- Duration
- 2007-01-01 → 2008-12-31
- EU contribution
- €158,479
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- EIF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Final Activity Report Summary - VOLCANGAS (Volcanic gas and aerosol emissions: ground based remote sensing, atmospheric impact and modelling of magma degassing processes)
The measurement of SO2 flux from volcanoes is of major importance for monitoring and hazard assessment purposes, and for evaluation of the environmental impact of volcanic emissions. We propose here a novel technique for accurate and high time resolution estimations of the gas flux. This method combines two wide field of view UV spectrometers which are capable of collecting, instantaneously, light from thin parallel cross sections of the whole gas plume, obviating the need for either traversing, scanning or imaging. It enables tracking of inhomogeneities in the gas cloud from which accurate evaluation of the plume velocity can be made by correlation analysis. The method has been successfully applied on Mt. Erebus (Antarctica), Kilauea (Hawaii) and Tungurahua (Ecuador) volcanoes. It yields estimations of the plume velocity and gas flux at unprecedented time resolution (1 Hz) and high accuracy. These measurements provide insight into the short-term variations of the degassing of these volcanoes with contrasting eruptive behaviours involving either passive or explosive degassing. Physical mechanisms are proposed to explain the observed degassing patterns. The dual-wide field of view DOAS technique promises better integration of geochemical and geophysical observations. It allows new insights into gas and magma dynamics, as well as processes of magma storage and gas segregation at active volcanoes.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Volcanic gases and aerosols have significant impacts on the atmosphere, human health and climate. In addition they give access to deep magmatic and hydrothermal processes. Ground based optical remote sensing methods give the opportunity to measure both variations of gas compositions and fluxes.This requires the determination of the gas plume velocity, which is often approximated by wind speed and direction, inducing large errors on its estimation. Direct plume velocity measurements give more accurate values. A simpler and new approach has been recently proposed, which involves combining multiple ultraviolet spectrometers (DOAS: Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) tracking the presence of inhomogeneities in the volcanic gas cloud.This technique and the subsequent rigorous statistical data treatment, using, in particular, Full Correlation Analysis (FCA), will lead to a quantitative error budget on the plume velocity and subsequent flux. In the near future, this improvement will lead to better estimations of the atmospheric impact. Moreover it will allow real-time data acquisition and processing, essential for routine volcano monitoring and hazard assessment.Volcanoes of Costa Rica present an important continuous degassing activity and are perfect candidates for such field applications. The development of conceptual and physico-chemical models to interpret temporal variations and possibly cyclic patterns in volcano degassing will permit a better characterization of the volcano-magmatic system.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- University of Cambridge · CambridgeCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union