Airlines can now fly through Volcanic Ash Clouds

A new tool will now allow air planes to fly through volcanic ash clouds and tackle unnecessary disruptions. There is a group of scientists working at the Norwegian Institute of Air Research and they have informed that their latest tool will help to keep the flight paths open. It is called Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector (AVOID). This tool was earlier tested and introduced in Sicily with a test flight over Mount Etna. It is an active volcano that looms over the Mediterranean island. This technology has been designed by a British scientist by the name of Dr. Fred Prata. The system uses heat detecting cameras and combines them with satellite data and atmospheric modelling to inform the pilots where an ash cloud is located and where it could be heading. This jet testing technology can make it feasible for pilots to identify an ash cloud ahead at altitudes of almost anywhere between 5000 and 50000 feet. AVOID uses two fast sampling thermal infra red cameras that make images and identify anything that is in front of the aeroplanes. The two cameras have been tuned to identify silicates which are the components that make up the volcanic ash. The cameras would be able to identify the silicates up to a hundred kilometres or maybe more even at a mean height of around thirty thousand feet and that information can be relayed straight back to the pilots in the cockpit and they will be able to see the volcanic ash in the atmosphere ahead of the aeroplane and manoeuvre around the cloud or patches of clouds.