Volcano Watch — It’s All About Perspective: How to Interpret an Interferogram
Volcano Watch is a weekly article and activity update written by U.S. Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory scientists and affiliates. Today's article is by Tyler Paladino, a Postdoctoral Fellow with the U.S. Geological Survey. Panels A and B show what an interferogram would look like for a simple expanding spherical magma chamber from an ascending and descending orbital perspective. The star shows the true center of the inflating magma source. The arrow and bar denote satellite flight direction and look direction respectively. Each fringe represents approximately 1.55 cm. Panels C and D show the same event in a cross-section view.
Pilot Insights – It’s just a little weather – what’s the big deal?
There is a big misconception about the complexities of flying in clouds. There are lots of YouTube videos and flying magazine articles about flights into clouds that result in fatalities. Among them, you’ll find one that says: “I don’t understand how anyone could make that mistake. All you have to do is look at that artificial horizon thing to figure out whether your wings are level or not.” Or, perhaps you are a low-time Private Pilot. You received three hours of instrument training with a hood of some type, and you did pretty well. So, what’s the big deal?
It’s not just hot air: Improved air quality model aids forecasters in the field
Imagine you’re a NOAA weather forecaster in the field during a raging, rapidly-spreading wildfire. Your title is incident meteorologist (or IMET), and your job is to support agencies and emergency responders who fight these devastating blazes by providing accurate weather forecasts. Your forecasts help determine a variety of factors about how the weather could impact the fire, including but not limited to how quickly the fire might spread and where it could go. But you can’t do it alone. On the ground and in the lab Behind the scenes, NOAA’s Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) and Air Resources Laboratory (ARL) in