This paper describes a series of proof‐of‐concept Beyond Visual Line Of Sight unmanned aerial vehicle flights which reached a range of up to 9 km and an altitude of 4,410 m Above Mean Sea Level over Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala, interacting with the volcanic plume on multiple occasions across a range of different conditions. Volcán de Fuego is an active volcano which emits gas and ash regularly, causing disruption to airlines operating from the international airport 50 km away and impacting the lives of the local population. Collection of data from within the plume develops scientists’ understanding of the composition of the volcano's output and is of use to scientists, aviation, and hazard management groups alike. This paper presents preliminary results of multiple plume interceptions with multiple aircraft, carrying a variety of sensors. A plume‐detection metric is introduced, which uses a combination of flight data and atmospheric sensor data to identify flight through a volcanic plume. Future work will develop the automation of plume tracking such that reliable scientific data sets can be gathered in a robust manner.

中文翻译：

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使用固定翼无人机在危地马拉福坎火山上遥感和识别火山羽

本文介绍了一系列概念证明，超越了视线范围的无人机飞行，该飞行过程达到了9公里的范围，并且在危地马拉的福坎市上空平均海拔高出4,410 m，与火山相互作用在各种不同条件下多次出现羽状流。福坎火山（Volcánde Fuego）是一座活泼的火山，定期排放气体和灰烬，这对从50公里外的国际机场运营的航空公司造成了干扰，并影响了当地居民的生活。从羽状流中收集数据有助于科学家了解火山输出的成分，并可供科学家，航空和灾害管理团体使用。本文介绍了携带多种传感器的多架飞机进行多次羽流拦截的初步结果。引入了羽流检测度量，该度量结合了飞行数据和大气传感器数据来识别通过火山羽流的飞行。未来的工作将发展羽流跟踪的自动化，以便可以以可靠的方式收集可靠的科学数据集。