Telescopes Unite in Unprecedented Observations of Famous Black Hole

 

NASA & ESA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Apr 15, 2021

In April 2019, scientists released the first image of a black hole in the galaxy M87 using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). However, that remarkable achievement was just the beginning of the science story to be told.

Tour: M87 in Different Wavelengths of Light

Video Credits: NASA/GSFC/SVS/M.Subbarao & NASA/CXC/SAO/A.Jubett.

Data from 19 observatories are being released that promise to give unparalleled insight into this black hole and the system it powers, and to improve tests of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

“We knew that the first direct image of a black hole would be groundbreaking,” said Kazuhiro Hada of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, a co-author of a new study being published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters to describe the large set of data. “But to get the most out of this remarkable image, we need to know everything we can about the black hole’s behavior at that time by observing over the entire electromagnetic spectrum.”

The immense gravitational pull of a supermassive black hole can power jets of particles that travel at almost the speed of light across vast distances. M87’s jets produce light spanning the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to visible light to gamma rays. The intensity of light across this spectrum gives a different pattern for each black hole. Identifying this pattern gives crucial insight into a black hole’s properties (for example, its spin and energy output), but this is a challenge because the pattern changes with time.

Scientists compensated for this variability by coordinating observations with many of the world’s most powerful telescopes on the ground and in space, collecting light from across the spectrum. This is the largest simultaneous observing campaign ever undertaken on a supermassive black hole with jets.

Image above: A view of the M87 supermassive black hole in polarised light. Image Credits: ESO/EHT Collaboration/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO).

The NASA telescopes involved in this observing campaign included the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Hubble Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), and the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope.

Beginning with the EHT’s now iconic image of M87, a new video takes viewers on a journey through the data from each telescope. The video shows data across many factors of ten in scale, both of wavelengths of light and physical size. The sequence begins with the EHT image of the black hole in M87 released in April 2019 (the data was obtained in April 2017). It then moves through images from other radio telescope arrays from around the globe, moving outward in the field of view during each step. (The scale for the width of squares is given in light years in the bottom right hand corner). Next, the view changes to telescopes that detect visible light (Hubble and Swift), ultraviolet light (Swift), and X-rays (Chandra and NuSTAR). The screen splits to show how these images, which cover the same amount of the sky at the same time, compare to one another. The sequence finishes by showing what gamma ray telescopes on the ground, and Fermi in space, detect from this black hole and its jet.

Each telescope delivers different information about the behavior and impact of the 6.5-billion-solar-mass black hole at the center of M87, which is located about 55 million light-years from Earth.

“There are multiple groups revving up to see if their models are a match for these rich observations, and we’re excited to see the whole community use this public data set to help us better understand the deep links between black holes and their jets,” said co-author Daryl Haggard of McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

The data were collected by a team of 760 scientists and engineers from nearly 200 institutions, 32 countries or regions, using observatories funded by agencies and institutions around the globe. The observations were concentrated from the end of March to the middle of April 2017.

Black Hole M87 Animation 2009-2017. Animation Credits: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO.

“This incredible set of observations includes many of the world’s best telescopes,” said co-author Juan Carlos Algaba of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. “This is a wonderful example of astronomers around the world working together in the pursuit of science.”

The first results show that the intensity of electromagnetic radiation produced by material around M87’s supermassive black hole was the lowest that had ever been seen. This produced ideal conditions for studying the black hole, from regions close to the event horizon out to tens of thousands of light-years.

The combination of data from these telescopes, and current (and future) EHT observations, will allow scientists to conduct important lines of investigation into some of astrophysics’ most significant and challenging fields of study. For example, scientists plan to use these data to improve tests of Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity. Currently, the main hurdles for these tests are uncertainties about the material rotating around the black hole and being blasted away in jets, in particular the properties that determine the emitted light.

A related question that is addressed by today's study concerns the origin of energetic particles called “cosmic rays,” which continually bombard the Earth from outer space. Their energies can be a million times higher than what can be produced in the most powerful accelerator on Earth, the Large Hadron Collider. The huge jets launched from black holes, like the ones shown in today’s images, are thought to be the most likely source of the highest energy cosmic rays, but there are many questions about the details, including the precise locations where the particles get accelerated. Because cosmic rays produce light via their collisions, the highest-energy gamma rays can pinpoint this location, and the new study indicates that these gamma-rays are likely not produced near the event horizon—at least not in 2017. A key to settling this debate will be comparison to the observations from 2018, and the new data being collected this week.

“Understanding the particle acceleration is really central to our understanding of both the EHT image as well as the jets, in all their ‘colors’,” said co-author Sera Markoff, from the University of Amsterdam. “These jets manage to transport energy released by the black hole out to scales larger than the host galaxy, like a huge power cord. Our results will help us calculate the amount of power carried, and the effect the black hole’s jets have on its environment.”

The release of this new treasure trove of data coincides with the EHT's 2021 observing run, which leverages a worldwide array of radio dishes, the first since 2018. Last year’s campaign was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the previous year was suspended because of unforeseen technical problems. This very week, EHT astronomers are targeting the supermassive black hole in M87 again, the one in our Galaxy (called Sagittarius A*), together with several more distant black holes for six nights. Compared to 2017 the array has been improved by adding three more radio telescopes: the Greenland Telescope, the Kitt Peak 12-meter Telescope in Arizona, and the NOrthern Extended Millimeter Array (NOEMA) in France.

“With the release of these data, combined with the resumption of observing and an improved EHT, we know many exciting new results are on the horizon,” said co-author Mislav Baloković of Yale University.

The Astrophysical Journal Letter describing these results is available here:
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/abef71

Related article:

Astronomers image magnetic fields at the edge of M87’s black hole
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/03/astronomers-image-magnetic-fields-at.html

Related links:

Chandra X-ray Observatory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html

Hubble Space Telescope (HST): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.html

Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/swift/main

Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/nustar/main/index.html

Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope:
https://www.nasa.gov/content/fermi-gamma-ray-space-telescope

Animation (mentioned), Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Lee Mohon.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Work Progresses Toward Ingenuity’s First Flight on Mars

 

NASA - Ingenuity Mars Helicopter logo.

April 15, 2021

The Ingenuity team has identified a software solution for the command sequence issue identified on Sol 49 (April 9) during a planned high-speed spin-up test of the helicopter’s rotors. Over the weekend, the team considered and tested multiple potential solutions to this issue, concluding that minor modification and reinstallation of Ingenuity’s flight control software is the most robust path forward. This software update will modify the process by which the two flight controllers boot up, allowing the hardware and software to safely transition to the flight state. Modifications to the flight software are being independently reviewed and validated yesterday in testbeds at JPL.

Image above: NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter unlocked its rotor blades, allowing them to spin freely, on April 7, 2021, the 47th Martian day, or sol, of the mission. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech.

While the development of the new software change is straightforward, the process of validating it and completing its uplink to Ingenuity will take some time. A detailed timeline for rescheduling the high-speed spin-up test and first flight is still in process. The process of updating Ingenuity’s flight control software will follow established processes for validation with careful and deliberate steps to move the new software through the rover to the base station and then to the helicopter. Intermediate milestones include:

• Diagnose the issue and develop potential solutions
• Develop/validate and upload software
• Load flight software onto flight controllers
• Boot Ingenuity on new flight software

Once we have passed these milestones, we will prepare Ingenuity for its first flight, which will take several sols, or Mars days. Our best estimate of a targeted flight date is fluid right now, but we are working toward achieving these milestones and will set a flight date next week. We are confident in the team’s ability to work through this challenge and prepare for Ingenuity’s historic first controlled powered flight on another planet.

Ingenuity Mars Helicopter flying. Animation Credits: NASA/JPL

Ingenuity continues to be healthy on the surface on Mars. Critical functions such as power, communications, and thermal control are stable. It is not unexpected for a technology demonstration like this to encounter challenges that need to be worked in real time. The high-risk, high-reward approach we have taken to the first powered, controlled flight on another planet allows us to push the performance envelope in ways we could not with a mission designed to last for years such as Perseverance. In the meantime, while the Ingenuity team does its work, Perseverance will continue to do science with its suite of instruments and is gearing up for a test of the MOXIE technology demonstration.

For more information about Ingenuity:

https://go.nasa.gov/ingenuity-press-kit and https://mars.nasa.gov/technology/helicopter

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text: Written by NASA/JPL.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Exodus of civilization into space - Stopping the process of increasing value added. Part 7

 

Economic Crash logo.

April 14, 2021

Preamble

Here the seventh article of a series of articles by Ph.D. Morozov Sergey Lvovich, expert in chronology and calendar systems, as well as space biology and medicine, Parliamentarian of Asgardia (AMP) the first space Nation.

Ph.D. Morozov Sergey Lvovich

Stopping the process of increasing value added

The main problem of the world financial elite today, as Anatoly Wasserman notes, is the widespread stopping of the process of increasing added value.

https://deita.ru/article/482312

Anatoly Wasserman. Image: (c) talam0nal

Of the 22 million people who were unemployed in the United States in March-April 2020, only 12 million were able to find new jobs (Institute RUSSTRAT).

Professor of Moscow State University Natalya Zubarevich predicted that due to the closure of a number of enterprises during the period of "covid" restrictions, the number of unemployed in Russia will amount to 13 million people in the period 2020-2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic today is reducing the GDP of all countries and economies of the world, including the United States and the collective West, by an unprecedented rate (up to 30%).

This is due to the fact that all the main markets on Earth have already been mastered, and all the features of the places of the planet that were once on the outskirts of life have exhausted themselves.

The world financial capital does not have a strategic long-term vector of development on Earth within the framework of the existing fifth socio-economic formation.

The development of technology has raised labor productivity to a level that, inevitably generating unemployment.

Just 30-40 years ago, 50% of the working-age population was employed in industry, and up to 30-40% in agriculture. It was the balance of the open model.

All others (service, maintenance, artists with dancers, officials, police officers, the army, academics, free medicine, education and science, and so on) fit into 10%.

Currently, agriculture employs less than 5%, but food is produced so much that a third is enough to export, and half of the rest is simply thrown away due to the expiration date, without experiencing food shortages.

The situation is similar in production, the share of employees in which has dropped to 8%, but all warehouses are clogged with their products.

But the service sector has grown to 55-60%. But he does not produce anything, existing only due to the redistribution of profits of the producing sectors. The world economy has nowhere to grow further.

Henry Kissinger stresses: “Our leaders [of the collective West] and their leaders [China and Russia] must discuss the limits [red lines] beyond which their threats will not go. And then they have to find ways to carry out such a policy over a long period of time ... You can say that this is completely impossible. But if this is completely impossible, we will slide into a situation similar to the First World War".

Henry Alfred Kissinger, 56th US Secretary of State (1973 - 1977)

Read further: "Symbol of the End of the XXI century" and "Tsiolkovsky's Galactic State".

Related articles:

Exodus of civilization into space - The sixth socio-economic formation of civilization. Part 6
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/04/exodus-of-civilization-into-space-sixth.html

Exodus of civilization into space - Space man. Part 5
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/04/exodus-of-civilization-into-space-space.html

Exodus of civilization into space - Biological End of the World. Part 4
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/04/exodus-of-civilization-into-space_7.html

Exodus of civilization into space - Geochronological Ice Ages, periods, eras. Part 3
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/04/exodus-of-civilization-into-space_5.html

Exodus of civilization into space - Astrophysical End of the World. Part 2
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/04/exodus-of-civilization-into-space.html

The ideology of space expansion - Space calendar. Part 1
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-ideology-of-space-expansion-space.html

Related links:

About Ph.D. Morozov Sergey Lvovich: https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5fbb90753e3ad265054f930a/ob-avtore-kanala-5fbd2bf80b4af80149fb12c2

Original article in Russian on Zen.Yandex:
https://zen.yandex.ru/media/id/5fbb90753e3ad265054f930a/ishod-civilizacii-v-kosmos-chast-7--ostanovka-processa-vozrastaniia-dobavlennoi-stoimosti-5fcb9efd7e300d7ccae33f61

Asgardia website: https://asgardia.space/

Author: Ph.D. Morozov Sergey Lvovich / Zen.Yandex. Editor / Translation: Roland Berga. 

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Walker Takes Command Thursday Ahead of Two Departures and Next SpaceX Crew

 

ISS - Expedition 64 Mission patch.

April 14, 2021

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

Ten people occupy the International Space Station today but that will change on Friday when three Expedition 64 crew members return to Earth. Soon after that, four new Commercial Crew members will launch to the orbital lab when it will temporarily host 11 crew members.

Houston native and NASA astronaut Shannon Walker is preparing to take command of the space station on Thursday when Commander Sergey Ryzhikov hands over control before departing the next day. NASA TV will broadcast the traditional change of command ceremony from Expedition 64 to Expedition 65 live beginning at 3:45 p.m. EDT.

Image above: NASA astronaut Shannon Walker will assume command of the station from Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Ryzhikov on Thursday afternoon. Image Credit: NASA.

Expedition 65 officially begins when Ryzhikov undocks inside the Soyuz MS-17 crew ship with Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos. The automated undocking command will come at 9:34 p.m. on Friday when the Soyuz spacecraft will slowly back away from the Poisk module. Less than three-and-a-half hours later the three space travelers will parachute to Earth inside their spacecraft after a 185-day space research mission.

The second operational crew mission from SpaceX is gearing up for launch on April 22 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Two NASA astronauts, one Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut and one ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut will ride inside the Crew Dragon spacecraft to the station to complete the Expedition 65 crew. NASA TV will be on air live broadcasting the 6:11 a.m. launch next Thursday. NASA TV’s continuous coverage will also show the docking taking place the following day at 5:30 a.m.

Image above: Expedition 64 Flight Engineers Kate Rubins of NASA and Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos are scheduled to depart the International Space Station Friday, April 16. The three crew members are pictured inside the Kibo laboratory module from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). Image Credit: NASA.

The four SpaceX Crew-2 astronauts are all veteran astronauts having previously launched to space on space shuttles and Soyuz crew ships. Crew-2 Commander Shane Kimbrough rode to the station twice on space shuttle Endeavour in 2008 and the Soyuz MS-02 crew ship in 2016. Pilot Megan McArthur flew aboard space shuttle Atlantis in 2009 to service the Hubble Space Telescope. JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide took two rides to low-Earth orbit, the first aboard space shuttle Discovery in 2008 and the second in 2011 aboard the Soyuz TMA-03M spacecraft. This will be ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet’s second space mission, his first aboard the Soyuz MS-03 crew ship in 2016.

Less than a week after the veteran quartet’s arrival, the four SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts will return to Earth after working in space for 162 days. Walker, along with her commercial crewmates Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Soichi Noguchi, will undock from the Harmony module’s space-facing international docking adapter on April 28 at 12:04 p.m. and splashdown off the coast of Florida about five-and-a-half hours inside their Crew Dragon vehicle.

Related article:

NASA to Provide Live Coverage of Space Station Crew Landing
https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-to-provide-live-coverage-of-space-station-crew-landing

Related links:

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html

Expedition 64: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition64/index.html

Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html

Poisk module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/poisk-mini-research-module-2

SpaceX Crew-1: https://go.nasa.gov/38QJ2PI

SpaceX Crew-2: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-astronauts-to-fly-on-spacex-crew-2-mission-to-space-station

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Sometimes Black Holes Are Prettier in Pink

 

NASA - Chandra X-ray Observatory patch.

April 14, 2021

This false-color image, taken by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory in 2012, shows an extraordinary outburst from a black hole – where its X-ray output increased at least 3,000 times – in the galaxy M83. Chandra observed what is called a ULX, or ultraluminous X-ray source. The remarkable behavior of this ULX in M83 provides direct evidence for a population of older, volatile, stellar-mass black holes.

Learn more about this black hole and view other images: https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/m83/more.html

Chandra X-Ray Observatory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/main/index.html

Image, Credits: Optical: ESO/VLT; Close-up - X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/Middlebury/Text Credits: NASA/Yvette Smith.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Blue Origin Conducts Astronaut Rehearsal for Future Customer Flights

 

Blue Origin - New Shepard NS-15 Mission patch.

April 14, 2021

Blue Origin successfully completed its 15th consecutive mission to space and back today and conducted a series of simulations to rehearse astronaut movements and operations for future flights with customers on board. This mission marked a verification step prior to flying astronauts.

Image above: Blue Origin's Audrey Powers simulates astronaut ingress on New Shepard Mission NS-15. (April 14, 2021).

For the first time, Blue Origin personnel standing in as astronauts entered the capsule prior to launch. These astronauts conducted a series of tests from within the capsule, including a comms check with the Capsule Communicator (CAPCOM), procedures for entering and exiting the capsule, and pre-launch preparations within the capsule. Following the crew capsule landing, the astronauts rehearsed post-flight procedures, hatch opening, and exiting the capsule.   

Also onboard today was Mannequin Skywalker and more than 25,000 postcards from Club for the Future, the nonprofit founded by Blue Origin.

KEY MISSION STATS

- 16th consecutive successful crew capsule landing (every flight in program, including pad escape test in 2012).

- The crew capsule reached an apogee of 347,574 ft. above ground level (AGL) / 351,221 ft. mean sea level (MSL) (105 km AGL/107 km MSL).

- The booster reached an apogee of 347,193 ft AGL / 350,840 ft MSL (105 km AGL / 106 km MSL).

- The mission elapsed time was 10 min 10 sec; the max ascent velocity was 2,234 mph / 3,596 km/h.

Blue Origin NS-15: New Shepard launch and landing, 14 April 2021

As with previous missions, all mission crew supporting this launch exercised strict social distancing and safety measures to mitigate COVID-19 risks to personnel and surrounding communities.  

Blue Origin: https://www.blueorigin.com/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: Blue Origin/SciNews.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA Satellites Detect Signs of Volcanic Unrest Years Before Eruptions

 

NASA - EOS Terra Mission patch.

Apr 13, 2021

New research methods may lead to earlier predictions of volcanic eruptions.

Although there are telltale signs that a volcano is likely to erupt in the near future – an uptick in seismic activity, changes in gas emissions, and sudden ground deformation, for example – accurately predicting such eruptions is notoriously hard.

Image above: Photo of eruption at Mount Redoubt in Alaska in 2009. Image Credits: Game McGimsey, USGS.

This is, in part, because no two volcanoes behave in exactly the same way and because few of the world’s 1,500 or so active volcanoes have monitoring systems in place. Under the best of circumstances, scientists can accurately forecast an eruption of a monitored volcano several days before it happens. But what if we knew months or even years in advance?

Using satellite data, scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks have developed a new method that brings us closer to that reality. The research was recently published in Nature Geoscience.

“The new methodology is based on a subtle but significant increase in heat emissions over large areas of a volcano in the years leading up to its eruption,” said lead author Társilo Girona, formerly of JPL and now with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. “It allows us to see that a volcano has reawakened, often well before any of the other signs have appeared.”

Image above: Scientists recently discovered that Mount Domuyo in Neuquen, Argentina, shown here, is an active volcano. Image Credits: Adobe Stock / Guillermo Cisneros.

The study team analyzed 16 ½ years of radiant heat data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometers (MODIS) – instruments aboard NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites – for several types of volcanoes that have erupted in the past two decades. Despite the differences between the volcanoes, the results were uniform: In the years leading up to an eruption, the radiant surface temperature over much of the volcano increased by around 1 degree Celsius from its normal state. It decreased after each eruption.

“We’re not talking about hotspots here but, rather, the warming of large areas of the volcanoes,” said co-author Paul Lundgren of JPL. “So it is likely related to fundamental processes happening at depth.”

EOS Terra satellite. Image Credit: NASA

In particular, the scientists believe that the heat increase may result from the interaction between magma reservoirs and hydrothermal systems. Magma (molten rock below Earth’s surface) contains gases and other fluids. When it rises through a volcano, the gases diffuse to the surface and can give off heat. Similarly, this degassing can facilitate the up-flow of underground water and the elevation of the water table, as well as hydrothermal circulation, which can increase soil temperature. But scientists say other processes may also be at play, because while their understanding of volcano behavior is improving, it remains limited.

“Volcanoes are like a box of mixed chocolates: They may look similar, but inside there is a lot of variety between them and, sometimes, even within the same one,” Lundgren said. “On top of that, only a few volcanoes are well monitored, and some of the most potentially hazardous volcanoes are the least frequently eruptive, which means you can’t rely strictly on historical records.”

Combining Data

The new method is significant on its own, but it may provide even more insight into volcano behavior when combined with data from models and other satellites.  

In a study published in Scientific Reports last summer, Lundgren used interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data to analyze long-term deformation at Argentina’s Domuyo Volcano. At the time, scientists weren’t certain whether Domuyo was a dormant or extinct volcano, or whether it was just a mountain. Lundgren’s research cleared that up quickly. He unexpectedly detected a period of inflation, which is when part of a volcano expands as a new mass of magma moves upward and pushes rock out of the way. It turns out that Domuyo is very much a volcano – and an active one.

Next, Lundgren compared this deformation time series to the thermal time series Társilo Girona created for Domuyo Volcano. Lundgren’s goal: to determine whether the two processes – an increase in both radiant surface temperature over large areas of the volcano and deformation – were connected.

“We found that the thermal time series very much mimicked the deformation time series but with some time separation,” said Lundgren. “Even though it remains unclear which process is likely to happen first, by showing the correlation, we can connect the processes through physics-based interpretations rather than simply relying on what we are able to observe at the subsurface.”

In other words, combining the datasets provides clues about what’s happening deeper inside the volcano and how the various processes influence and interact with each other – data that can improve the accuracy of models used to forecast eruptions.

“Although the research does not answer all of the questions, it opens the door to new remote sensing approaches – especially for distant volcanoes – that should get us some fundamental insights into competing hypotheses for how volcanoes behave in general dynamic terms over timescales of a few years to decades,” Lundgren added.

Looking Ahead

Moving forward, the scientists will test the thermal time series method on more volcanoes and continue to fine-tune its precision.  

“One of the goals is to one day have a tool that can be used in near real-time to check for volcanic activity in volcanic areas,” said Girona. “Even for small eruptions, there is evidence of thermal unrest before the initiation of the eruption event, so the new method helps bring us a little closer to that goal.”

The data help to supplement existing tools used at monitored volcanoes. But they also greatly increase the number of volcanoes for which potentially life-saving data can be made available.

“Using the new thermal method that detects changes in the surface temperature around volcanoes and the InSAR ground-surface deformation measurements helps enable volcano observatories around the word to identify which volcanoes are the most likely to erupt and which volcanoes should be instrumented for closer observations,” Lundgren said. “In using satellite data, you increase the scope of what can be monitored on a regular basis.”

As for the once-largely-ignored Domuyo, the story is still evolving: It is one of several volcanoes recently prioritized by the Argentine government to be outfitted with a monitoring system.

Related links:

Nature Geoscience: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-021-00705-4

Scientific Reports: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-67982-8

NASA EOS Terra: https://terra.nasa.gov/

NASA EOS Aqua: https://aqua.nasa.gov/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Jane J. Lee/Ian J. O’Neill/Written by Esprit Smith, NASA’s Earth Science News Team.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch