Detecting volcanic ash clouds with AVOID

After the 2010 eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano, an invisible cloud of ash raised numerous complications for air navigation and led many airlines to ground their fleet.

This underscored the need for new technology allowing aircraft to detect and analyze volcanic ash clouds:

the development of which is being advanced by the AVOID (Airborne Volcanic Object Imaging Detector) project, a partnership between Airbus, easyJet and Nicarnica Aviation.

This video highlights the project’s origins, and includes footage from the successful experiment conducted October 2013.