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Remote sensing of the Montserrat Volcano with the AVTIS millimetre wave instrument
| Description | Physics and Astronomy Colloquium: Balmullo Quarry to the Belham Valley: Remote sensing of the Montserrat Volcano with the AVTIS millimetre wave instrument |
| Presenter | Dr David MacFarlane, University of St Andrews |
| Type | Academic, Talk |
| Open to | All staff and students |
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| Date | Friday, 10 February 2012 |
| Time |
10:00 AM to 11:00 AM |
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| Where | Physics Lecture Theatre C |
| Contact | Jonathan Keeling |
| Email | jmjk@st-andrews.ac.uk |
| Website | http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/physics/PHP_Global/colloquia_List.php |
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| More info | The Soufriere Hills Volcano on the British overseas territory of Montserrat is one of the most studied volcanoes on the planet. Active since 1995, the lava dome has been through five major phases of eruption, forcing the evacuation of the capital Plymouth due to the hazard of unpredictable pyroclastic flows that occur when the lava dome collapses. Monitoring the changing topography of the lava dome (which can change height by metres per day) requires round the clock surveillance, but this is often hampered by poor visibility with the volcano obscured by cloud for weeks at a time. Millimetre waves offer a solution to this problem providing a trade-off between the low attenuation of microwaves and the imaging resolution of infrared. The AVTIS (All-weather Volcano Topography Imaging Sensor) mm-wave instrument has been developed in St Andrews to solve this problem by providing a portable ground based sensor to measure the 3D shape of the dome in almost any weather conditions. |
