M. Garces¹ , B. Taisne² , T. Murayama³ , E. Blanc⁴ , J. Vergoz⁴ , A. Tupper⁵ , P. Mialle⁶ , M. Ngemaes⁷ , F. Shaw⁸

¹University of Hawaii, Infrasound Laboratory, Kailua-Kona, HI, USA
²Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technical University, Singapore
³Japan National Data Centre of Japan and Japan Weather Association, Japan
⁴ARISE and Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), France
⁵Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, Bureau of Meteorology, Darwin, NT, Australia
⁶CTBTO Preparatory Commission, Vienna, Austria
⁷National Data Centre of Palau and National Weather Service, Koror, Palau
⁸Meteorological Service Singapore, Singapore

Abstract:

The ASHE Asia project is an international collaboration between National Data Centers, operational agencies, and research organizations to improve early notification of potentially hazardous eruptions in Asia and the Western Pacific. The increased availability of open seismo-acoustic data in the ASEAN region and recent advances in mobile distributed sensors networks can reduce notification latency of hazardous volcanic eruptions. We use the IMS network in combination with established technologies and next-generation smartphone sensing systems to detect and characterize eruptions in the Asia-Pacific region that can inject volcanic ash at aircraft cruising altitudes. The Volcano Explosivity Index (VEI) is an operational metric traditionally used in the monitoring community, where a VEI 4 eruption injects ash above 10 km. The initial ASHE Asia V4R4 technical objective is to automatically detect and report eruptions with a VEI 4 and above within a maximum notification latency of 4 hours (~4,000 km range). We will implement standardized metrics to provide actionable reports with the eruption location, time, duration and VEI-equivalent energy. These reports would provide relevant eruption characteristics that can be used to trigger ash dispersion models by Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres or individual meteorological services for ash and aviation safety.