Is it gonna blow? Measuring volcanic emissions from space. (2017, October 14). Retrieved October 27, 2017, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171012200221.htm

This article refers to a stratovolcano in Bali that has started smoking one month ago, but still hasn’t erupted.  Researchers have figured out a way to measure carbon dioxide emissions from a satellite in space.  The researchers published in the Science magazine that the satellite’s sensors are able to pinpoint localized sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  This is not an easy task considering all of the background carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.  Through the process of spectroscopy, the satellite emits light in which the wavelength is not detectable to the human eye.  Carbon dioxide absorbs some of the light when hit.  The satellite then measures the amount of light that bounces back (not absorbed by CO2).  This allows scientists to find specific localized sources of CO2 emission, whether human or natural.  If this technique is used on the volcano in Bali, it would be much easier and efficient than physically going up the volcano and placing devices that measure CO2 emission.

The article mentions that as soon as the smoking started, officials evacuated all of the people who live near the volcano.  This is because the last time Mount Agung erupted was in 1963 and killed over 1000 people.  However, now that it has been a month, the Balinese are complaining that they want to go back to their homes,  In addition, tourism is down.  According to a more recent article, the volcano’s alert status has actually lowered and seismic activity has actually decreased over the past week.  At first, there were 28 local villages that were in the exclusion zone, but after this decreased activity only 6 villages remain.  Bali’s governor demanded that foreign nations remove travel warnings.  This was in response to the Balinese hotel industry losing over $200 million in the past month.

References:

  1. Florian M. Schwandner, Michael R. Gunson, Charles E. Miller, Simon A. Carn, Annmarie Eldering, Thomas Krings, Kristal R. Verhulst, David S. Schimel, Hai M. Nguyen, David Crisp, Christopher W. O’Dell, Gregory B. Osterman, Laura T. Iraci, James R. Podolske. Spaceborne detection of localized carbon dioxide sources. Science, 2017; 358 (6360): eaam5782 DOI: 10.1126/science.aam5782
  2. Hawley, I. C. (2017, October 29). Bali volcano’s alert status lowered after decreased activity. Retrieved October 30, 2017, from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-30/bali-mount-agung-volcano-threat-decreases/9097790