The AVTIS imager is a portable mm-wave instrument designed to measure how a volcano changes size, shape and temperature. Some volcanoes can change very quickly with great spines of rock appearing overnight and new mountains being built in the space of a few months!

Watching to see how a volcano changes might seem like a simple thing to do, but most volcanoes are usually covered in cloud making it really difficult to see what is happening. Sometimes months can go by without a good view. Even when the weather is clear gas and smoke obscure the most active parts of the volcano in exactly the places that scientists need to look if they are going to try and tell what is going to happen next.

AVTIS (which stands for All-weather Volcano Topography Imaging Sensor) was built to look at the volcanic lava dome on the Caribbean island of Montserrat. Since mm-waves pass right through cloud, gas and smoke, AVTIS can see what is happening all of the time. This is really important if you are trying to predict when the volcano might explode. The idea with AVTIS is to measure exactly where activity is greatest on the lava dome surface and help predict where new explosions might happen. To learn more about the volcano on Montserrat and how AVTIS works follow the links on the right.