Throughout the deadly Cumber Vieja volcanic eruption on Spain’s La Palma island in September, fleets of drones monitored and measured the lava river for scientific studies and emergency management.
During a Tuesday afternoon session in the Expodrónica Pavilion, Alejandro Polo Santabarbara of DataDron, a drone operations company based in the Canary Islands, discussed the successes and problems in obtaining the volcanic eruption data.
The Cumber Vieja volcano was a strombolian fissure eruption with lava flows, ash rain, and hundreds of small earthquakes. The Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands hired DataDron to help it study the lava flows. DataDron carried out four photogrammetric flights using a DJI Matrice 210v2 drone equipped with a DJI Zenmuse XT2 Dual 19mm camera.
The goal, Santabarbara said, was to obtain thermal and red, green, and blue wavelength (RGB) images. The images were processed on a geographic information system (GIS) software platform, and included thermal model calibration. “We created a thermal orthomosaic of the lava flows and the lava flow thickness,” he explained.
Technical problems included restriction of flight areas because of the frequently changing lava river flow and a high usage of drones along the volcanic ridge, Santabarbara stated. There were also environmental issues such as ash rain, exposure to gases and smoke, and high temperatures.
“Every day, the situation changed, and we needed to adapt to it,” Santabarbara said.
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