The main gases released by volcanoes are water vapour, carbon dioxide, and sulphur dioxide. Analysing these gases is one of the best ways of obtaining information on volcanic systems and the magmatic processes that are under way.
The ratio of carbon dioxide levels to those of sulphur dioxide can even reveal the likelihood of an impending eruption.
While drones have already been used to analyse the site of volcano activity, transporting them to their operation sites has required significant expense due to their high weight.
A team of researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) has been assessing a very compact drone system that can be transported on foot to sites that are normally extremely difficult to access through other means.
A particularly promising parameter when it comes to the surveillance of changes to volcanic activity is the ratio of concentration of carbon dioxide to sulphur dioxide in the released gases.
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