Unlock $200M for Volcanic Hazard Tech & Mitigation

The US Geological Survey, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, is offering a funding opportunity to bring international programs together to acquire and apply satellite remote sensing data to monitoring volcanic hazards, with the goal of better volcanic hazards assessment and mitigation. Specific objectives include coordinating the work of existing volcano monitoring programs into a unified system of databases, develop a global plan for multi-platform Earth observation of volcanoes, and design a strategy for remote sensing of global volcanoes that spans disciplinary and agency boundaries. The observing strategy will be communicated to the international community of space agencies. The strategy will involve both background observations and a mechanism for changing the acquisition priority for volcanoes that show signs of unrest (detected from either ground- or space-based sensors).

The expectation is that the growing constellation of satellites will be used together to detect volcanic hazards and mitigate risk, including automated detection of unrest, detailed monitoring of crises, and robust two-way communication between data providers and end users.