NASA Flies Dragon Eye Unmanned Aerial Vehicle into Volcanic Plume

NASA has now flown a small electric aircraft into a volcano plume. Why? They wanted to study the volcano's chemical environment and gain data so that they could improve the remote-sensing capability of satellites and computer models of volcanic activity.

The volcano in question is the Turrialba Volcano, located near San Jose, Costa Rica. It's a perfect natural laboratory to test and develop volcanological unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Since the Turrialba plume has relatively minimal updraft and wind shear, it's easier for these aircraft to fly through it.

The researchers visited the site last month in order to fly a Dragon Eye UAV equipped with cameras and sensors into the thick plume of sulfur dioxide within the summit crater. In all, the scientists launched 10 flights into the plume and along the rim of the summit crater, about 10,500 feet above sea level. The researchers made sure to coordinate their data gathering with the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft. This allowed them to compare sulfur dioxide concentration measurements from the satellite with measurements taken within the plume.

Yet actually creating the aircraft that took flight wasn't easy. "It's very difficult to gather data from within volcanic eruption columns and plumes because updraft wind speeds are very high and high ash concentrations can quickly destroy aircraft engines," said David Pieri, the project's principal investigator, in a news release.

To overcome these challenges, the UAVs were equipped with electric engines that ingested little contaminated air. This allowed the aircraft to collect crucial data about ash and gas concentrations and their lateral and vertical distribution. Weighing 5.9 pounds with a 3.75-foot wingspan, the aircraft could carry a one-pound instrument for up to an hour within the plume.

"This project is a great example of how unmanned aircraft can be used for beneficial civilian purposes-in this case for better understanding Earth system processes and the impact of volcanism in our atmosphere," said Matthew Fladeland, airborne science manager at Ames, in a news release.

The data collected from this project could help the scientists improve satellite data research projects, such as maps of concentration and distribution of volcanic gases. It also allowed them to test UAVs, which could be used in future research projects that aim to better understand volcanoes.