IVIS Laboratory

Field Resources/Equipment

The IVIS laboratory contains a variety of field resources and equipment to support the current lab projects. The resources and equipment are used to validate observations and interpretations from remote sensing data (calibration/validation) and laboratory experiments by acquiring field measurements for “ground truth”. Additionally, the field-based data are used to investigate active geologic processes for direct scientific studies.

Field-based equipment includes three multispectral forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera systems, two larger handheld instruments (an older FLIR S40 and a new FLIR T1030sc) and a new miniature system using a FLIR A65. These camera systems accurately broadband TIR temperature data at high speeds for comparison with laboratory and orbital/airborne data products. They can be used to investigate dynamic volcanic processes (e.g., lava flow emplacement, the thermal convection and ash particle size distribution in volcanic plumes/columns), urban systems and ecological studies. The S40 and T1030sc cameras can be outfitted with telephoto optics lenses for imagine up to 5 km away from the target. In addition, the S40 and A65 have been modified with multispectral filters allowing compositional information to be derived from these cameras for the first time. These filters have a comparable spectral resolution to the ASTER, MODIS, TIIRS and VIIRS orbital sensors, which enables comparable studies to be untaken. The smaller A65 system, dubbed the miniature multispectral thermal infrared camera (MMT-Cam), is highly portable and used mostly to investigate relatively slow volcanic processes, for example, the cooling regimes of active lava lakes and lava flows. For more information about these systems please refer to the “Developing TIR field Instrumentation” page.

Additional equipment available includes an ASD Fieldspec HH VNIR field spectrometer; two Trimble differential GPS Pro systems unit with two different Laser Tech 3-D profiling systems (long and short range); a Raytek Raynger MX hand-held radiometer; and two hygrometers.

To date these field resources and equipment have been deployed on field campaigns to Arizona, Alaska, California, Hawaii, Guatemala, El Salvador, Iceland, Japan, Kamchatka and Nicaragua.