Scientists monitor active volcanoes by drones

Tobias Fischer, a geochemist from New Mexico University said: “We also wanted to quantify the carbon emissions from this giant CO2 machine.”

Although volcanoes’ emissions account for only a small part of human carbon emissions, researchers still want to figure out how much carbon dioxide they emit and include that factor in our carbon budget to limit the effects of climate change.

The international team came to Papua New Guinea, during two field trips to Manam Island in October 2018 and in May 2019, tested two long-range drones equipped with gas sensors, cameras and other equipment.

Manam's steep slopes make it extremely dangerous for people to walk up to collect gas samples, but the drone could safely fly into the rising heavy smoke, helping the research team to more accurately measure the volcano's emissions.

The drones rose more than 2,000 metres into the fast-moving volcanic ash plume, about six kilometres away from their depart point and far away from sight of their operators.

Each flight brings back images of Manamu volcano and its two craters, measuring the composition of the gas directly above the rising plume, and collecting four bags of additional gas for quick analysis after recovery.

Drones captured the aerial images which showed the degassing of manamu's south crater intensified between October 2018 and May 2019. In fact, the volcano erupted soon after in June, just a month after the researchers' second field trip.