Drones equipped with mass spectrometers could also prove useful for predicting eruptions.
Nearly 1,100 miles away from Mount Rainier, volcanologists at JPL in Pasadena, California, are developing tiny mass spectrometers — which can detect gases as they move through sunlight — that can be mounted on drones.
These devices work because volcanoes emit certain gases in a specific order before an eruption, in a process that begins years before magma reaches the surface. An increase in carbon dioxide means you have potentially months before an eruption, says JPL’s Pieri. If it’s sulfur dioxide?
“Then you’re looking at an imminent eruption,” he says.
Welcome to drone day on the Adafruit blog. Every Monday we deliver the latest news, products and more from the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), quadcopter and drone communities. Drones can be used for video & photography (dronies), civil applications, policing, farming, firefighting, military and non-military security work, such as surveillance of pipelines. Previous posts can be found via the #drone tag and our drone / UAV categories.
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