New Mexico Power Plant to Stand In for Volcano in Testing Instruments
Scientists plan to let a northwestern New Mexico power plant be their stand-in for a volcano.
Scientists from Los Alamos National Laboratory, working on a project to forecast volcanic eruptions and determine effects of volcanoes on global climate, will use emissions from the 1,800-megawatt San Juan Generating Station near Farmington to calibrate remote sensing instruments.
Fraser Goff, principal investigator, said some emissions from the Public Service Co. of New Mexico smokestacks are similar to what comes out of a volcano.
The project will use the plant to test instruments before trying them on a real volcano off the coast of New Zealand this spring, he said.
The instruments should allow scientists to determine the presence and amount of sulfur dioxide and may be able to detect carbon dioxide, water vapor, hydrochloric acid and other chemical constituents of plumes from volcanic vents, lab officials said.
Perfecting a way to monitor gases from afar would let researchers safely obtain continuous information about changing ratios.
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