傳感器在活火山監測中起關鍵作用

　　火山和火山活動使我們著迷。隨著更大的規律性，傳感器被用于收集和分析數據，以便準確的火山活動預測可以創建。考慮，例如，最近的一些新聞標題：“美國宇航局阿姆斯壯帶領團隊測試火山灰對飛機發動機的作用，”和“海底傳感器記錄可能噴發的海底火山，”以及“與無線傳感器網絡監測火山噴發。“傳感器足夠能干的，可靠的，準確的，基于通過傳感器融合強大到足以應對這些海量數據提供的數據。

　　據估計，世界上大約有1500個潛在的活火山，它們能夠造成大量的破壞，即使它可能不明顯。根據美國地質調查局（USGS）的數據，在過去的15年里，有超過80架商用飛機在機場和機場遇到火山灰。七的這些遭遇造成噴氣發動機功率的飛行損失，幾乎導致崩潰。

　　To further investigate the causes behind these incidents， since 2011 NASA has partnered with the 412th Air Force Test Wing， the Air Force Research Laboratory， the Federal Aviation Administration （FAA）， Boeing Research & Technology， Pratt and Whitney， General Electric Aviation， and Rolls-Royce Liberty Works to test and evaluate new engine health-management technologies through the implementation of the Vehicle Integrated Propulsion Research （VIPR） project.

　　Sensors are now being used to test the amount of volcanic ash that aircraft can handle. With the use of a C-17 and two F117 engines provided by the Air Force Research Laboratory， the current stage of testing will introduce increased amounts of Mount Mazama volcanic ash into one of the engines to assess how the health monitoring sensors and their associated software can detect and report a problem. According to a principle investigator of the VIPR project working on the challenge， “We’re looking at technologies that will be able to identify aircraft entry faults at the beginning stages and we want to be able to identify and diagnose them， and also how they will change over time，” said John Lekki of NASA’s Glenn Research Center and a VIPR principle investigator. Lekki indicates that the investigation team will use the data from multiple sensors including vibration， emissions， and fiber-optic temperature sensors throughout the engine to identify and diagnose the issues.