A Low Cost Silicon Based Thermal Camera for Volcanic Applications

Volcanic gases and the chemical reactions inside volcanic emission plumes are of great interest because of their impact on atmospheric processes and climate. The evolution of many volcanic gas compounds is most likely strongly dependent on the general physical conditions during the emission processes. Particularly, the knowledge about the temperature of the lava, i.e. the origin of the gases, is crucial.

Commercially available thermal cameras for the relevant temperature range (ca. 600-1200 °C) are still rather expensive, bulky, and have a limited spatial resolution.

We present an approach to use a compact (‘point and shoot’) consumer digital camera with a silicon based detector as a thermometer to record the spatial temperature distribution and variations of volcanic lava. Silicon detectors are commonly sensitive in the near infrared wavelength range (until ca. 1100 nm), which readily allows measurements of temperatures above ca. 500 °C. The camera is modified to block the visible spectrum and the remaining colour filter (Bayer filter) characteristics are used to infer the temperature from differential intensity measurements.

In the frame of this work, we performed a sensitivity study and calibrated the camera with a heated wire in the range of 600-1100 °C. Besides the advantages of superior mobility and simple handling, the 16 megapixel spatial resolution of the temperature measurement allows resolving detailed temperature distributions in highly dynamic volcanic emission processes.