传感器在活火山监测中起关键作用

　　传感器在活火山监测中起关键作用

　　火山和火山活动使我们着迷。随着更大的规律性，传感器被用于收集和分析数据，以便准确的火山活动预测可以创建。考虑，例如，最近的一些新闻标题：“美国宇航局阿姆斯壮带领团队测试火山灰对飞机发动机的作用，”和“海底传感器记录可能喷发的海底火山，”以及“与无线传感器网络监测火山喷发。“传感器足够能干的，可靠的，准确的，基于通过传感器融合强大到足以应对这些海量数据提供的数据。

　　据估计，世界上大约有1500个潜在的活火山，它们能够造成大量的破坏，即使它可能不明显。根据美国地质调查局（USGS）的数据，在过去的15年里，有超过80架商用飞机在机场和机场遇到火山灰。七的这些遭遇造成喷气发动机功率的飞行损失，几乎导致崩溃。

　　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.