Short timescale degassing dynamics in a very young plume revealed by proximal Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) measurements at Volcán Villarrica, Chile

Volcanic gas emissions offer valuable insights into the dynamics of magma ascent and outgassing, and contribute an important source of volatiles to the Earth's atmosphere on geological timescales. Measurements of gas composition and flux are therefore critical to both volcano monitoring and to determining the volcanic contribution to global geochemical cycles. However, significant gaps remain in our global inventory of volcanic emissions,(particularly for CO 2 and H 2 O, which require proximal sampling of a concentrated plume) for those volcanoes where the near-vent region is hazardous or inaccessible. Here, we demonstrate that Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) provide a robust and effective solution to proximal sampling of dense plumes in extreme volcanic environments. We present gas compositional data acquired using multirotor UAS, flown in both mapping and static hover configurations, from the …