An Equipment Proposal: Volcanic Conduit Dynamics Observed Through Forward Looking Infrared Radiometry

University Of Alaska Fairbanks Campus, Fairbanks AK

Investigators

Abstract

0324640 Dehn Arguably the most important variable in the modeling of volcanic processes is temperature. The variability of temperature in real volcanic systems exceeds 1000 degrees, crossing the vapor, liquid and solidus phases of the host and volcanic materials. Thus, large changes in temperature affect changes in the dynamics of volcanic systems. It is exceedingly difficult to scale such temperature changes in the laboratory, and thus many volcanologists take to the field as their lab to understand the processes that control eruptions. Until recently, for accurate temperature measurements, researchers were limited to thermocouples, optical pyrometry, or simple spot radiometers, delivering the temperature of a single target. The forward looking infrared radiometer (FLIR) provides a complete image, with accurate temperatures at every pixel. This provides a spatial dimension to the data which has been previously unavailable. This new dimension in the FLIR data provides a framework to link diverse geophysical data sets. This grant support the acquisition of two handheld FLIR systems by the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska. These systems will be used to study heat transfer processes from recent lavas flows at volcanoes worldwide but will primarily be focused on study of numerous active Aleutian arc volcanoes and the Kilauea hot spot volcano in Hawaii. The systems will support basic research on radiative transfer and lava dynamics and eruption types, volcanic hazard assessment and graduate student education in volcanology. The availability of the two FLIR systems, where collaborative efforts allow, can be linked to provide stereo imagery useful to measure erupted gas and lava volumes not possible with a single unit. ***