This summer was pretty exciting. In the beginning of June,
MTU hosted the 2nd International Workshop on the Remote Sensing of
Volcanic Clouds. It was a great opportunity to meet scientists from around the
world and see how different institutions study volcanic clouds. In July I
headed off for a month-long journey. I started at the COV III student workshop
where we spent a week on the Big Island learning about explosive and effusive
volcanism as well as the social impacts of eruptions (COV pictures). The
conference was the following week in Hilo. I presented my first poster there
and got some good feedback. After the conference, I headed off to Japan for a
two and a half week stay. I first visited Kagoshima University (on the southern
island of Kyushu). In the Department of Education, there is a group that
studies volcanic clouds. They seem to mainly focus on ash since they receive
AVHRR and GMS data at the school. For my visit, we had a volcanic cloud
workshop where I and a few other students presented some of our work. We also
visited the Nasei Toko Observatory for Earthquakes and Volcanoes (NOEV). I also
visited the local office of the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) in Kagoshima.
They are responsible for monitoring 7 active volcanoes in Kyushu and some of
the southern islands using GPS, infrasonic microphones, seismometers, cameras,
and a Brewer instrument for SO2. A main focus is Sakurajima, which
is located in Kagoshima Bay.
Since I was in Kagoshima on a national holiday (Marine
Day), I had some time to see the sights. In addition to visiting Skaurajima, I
also went to the Kirishima volcanic field and attended several festivals. After
Kagoshima, I stayed in Hiroshima and Kyoto for several days. I did not do any
science here, but it would have been silly not to take in some of the cultural
part of Japan since I was there. I visited the Hiroshima Peace Park and many
shrines in both cities (pictures). I stayed with a couple, Sam and Suzi, in
Hiroshima. They took me sightseeing to Miyajima and other places. Staying with
a family was a really great experience and I would urge anyone with the chance
to take it.
I made my way to Tokyo where I spent a week. I did a little
sight-seeing here, but this is where I knew that I could get the information
that I needed so more time was spent doing work. I went to the Tokyo Volcano
Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) with Kamada san, who works there and was my host in
Tokyo. We then visited the main JMA office. Here, I got to see how they
monitored Miyakejima. They rely heavily on cameras, seismometers, microphones,
and GPS since the island is only open to residents and scientists two days per
month. On the final day, we went to the Meteorological Satellite Center (MSC). Here,
the focus a lot on weather (typhoons were especially important when I was
there), but also a bit on ash in volcanic clouds. I presented my work again
here and it was pretty exciting because most of the people were not up-to-date
on the SO2 retrievals that are being used now or even on some of the
satellites. Also, here I was able to get GMS data that I had been having
trouble figuring out how to get. I even got to meet the director of MSC and he
said he was glad that I wanted to use their data. It was a pretty good couple
of weeks!
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