Weather Radar Utilization for Monitoring Volcanic Activity to Support Flight Safety: A Case Study of Mount Marapi Eruption, West Sumatra, 22 December 2023
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59796/jcst.V16N1.2026.161Keywords:
weather radar, volcanic activity, eruption height, volcanic ash, flight safetyAbstract
Volcanic ash can cause damage to aircraft engines and endanger flight safety. Weather radar has the potential to detect the height and direction of eruption cloud distribution, as well as the type of volcanic material. This research aims to close the technological gap in volcanic activity observation and eruption-height detection of volcanic eruptions using weather radar, based on a case study of the Mount Marapi eruption in West Sumatra on 22 December 2023. The method used in this research is to process radar data to produce weather radar products, specifically the CMAX (Column Maximum) product to determine the pattern of eruption activity and multi-VCUT (Vertical Cut) product to describe the eruption intensity, pattern characteristics, height, and distribution direction. The data used is the BMKG weather radar data from the Minangkabau Meteorological Station, West Sumatra. Before data processing, Clutter Identification and Radar Data Quality Control were carried out to reduce observation bias caused by ground-echo clutter.
The analysis results of the weather radar data show multiple episodes of continuous and sporadic eruption activity from Mount Marapi during a single day of observation. These results are more detailed than the VONA (Volcano Observatory Notice for Aviation) reports based on visual observations. This provides an opportunity to develop a volcanic ash early-warning system that improves the accuracy and effectiveness of volcanic activity observations and enhances flight safety.
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