Managing volcanic unrest: The mobile volcano fast response system

Abstract

A mobile volcano fast response system (VFRS) that can be deployed on a volcano in case of volcanic unrest is currently under development in Germany. The main goal of the project called Exupery, which is funded by the BMBF (German ministry for the education and research) project Geotech-nologien, is to develop the core of a mobile volcano fast response system, i.e. providing the communication technology for stations in the field and an expert system that collects all data from various sources, assembles them in a data base, and allows different modules to assess the data and model and project the activity status of the volcano. Important novelties of the proposed mobile system are the direct inclusion of the remote sensing data into VFRS and the wireless communication mesh node based system that enables communication among field instruments and a single data base collecting data from different sources.