Under the Volcano

FLIR Systems cameras used to monitor active volcanoes

If an infrared camera is the instrument to detect and measure hot spots, it must be the perfect tool to survey the biggest and most impressive hot spots on earth: volcanoes.

Italy is home to at least two of the world's currently most active volcanoes. Its Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) and in particular, the institute's branch based in the city of Catania, Sicily, (INGV-CT) oversees the notorious Mount Etna and Stromboli volcanoes as well as the somewhat less smoking and bubbling Aeolian Islands. The Institute's consistent use of thermal imaging and hence its cooperation with FLIR Systems started in 2001.

"Infrared monitoring of volcanoes gives new insights into the complex mechanisms which control the volcanic system", says Dr. Sonia Calvari, Volcanology Unit Manager at the Catania branch: "they help to measure and map active lava flows, to detect new cracks and landslide scars, to monitor the crater's inner morphology and temperature, and to gather the change patterns which usually pre¬cede eruptions."

Visual and thermal image of hot cracks developing along the Sciara del Fuoco hillside, about one hour before flank failure and tsunami.