A FUTUREVOLC exercise
Over three days at the end of January 2016 all 26 FutureVolc partners, together with additional Stakeholders, were involved in responding to an evolving eruption scenario. The exercise was a great test of the new instrumentation and procedures introduced by FutureVolc.
A Scientific Advisory Board was formed to discuss the evolving situation. Procedures for sending monitoring teams into the field were practiced and the set-up of new equipment for taking ash samples was tested. FutureVolc partners were able to practice evaluating monitoring data from seismometers, radar and GPS stations, the acquisition of satellite data, and running models to determine information such as the mass eruption rate. All of this was done in real time.
To evaluate downstream dissemination of information, the exercise included the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) and representatives from the international media and civil protection. The recently released FutureVolc datahub and Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes were also tested for the first time in a real-time response situation. The exercise was a successful test of the response to an eruption.
See the FutureVolc website (source) for a more detailed description.
