Dr Matt Watson
Reader in Geophysical Natural Hazards | University of Bristol
Bristol, UNITED KINGDOM
Investigating volcano eruptions as part of a global taskforce
Areas of Expertise (6)
Flight Disruptions From Ash
Lava
Volcanic Eruptions
Volcanoes
Ash Clouds
Air Measurements
Biography
Matt Watson is based in the School of Earth Sciences, where his work revolved around volcanoes, particularly ash clouds. His extensive studies include the volcanoes in Central and Southern America, and he was part of the post-eruption taskforce for the Fuego volcano eruption in Guatemala in 2018. His research involves the use of satellite images and other remote sources including drones to predict the movement of volcanic eruptions and of ash clouds.
Among the projects Dr Watson has been involved in are studies of the impact of ash clouds on jet engines, developing new instruments to detect the movement of ash in the wind and to inform piloting decisions, examining the change in terrain that results from a volcanic eruption, and exploring the contentious process of deliberately using volcanic eruptions to cool the climate. His expertise is being used in a TV series called 'The Greatest Shown on Earth', which explores ash clouds linked to the Fuego volcano eruption.
Media
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Links (3)
Media Appearances (5)
Bali volcano latest: Mount Agung could remain on brink of major eruption for weeks as ash continues to spew, warn volcanologists
The Independent online
2017-11-28
Dr Matt Watson, from the University of Bristol, said: “The truth is it could peter out tomorrow. I don’t think that’s particularly likely, but it’s not impossible.
NASA Satellite Captures First Full View of New South Pacific Island
The Weather Channel online
2015-05-04
Matt Watson, a professor at the University of Bristol, says the new land is unstable and vulnerable to waves and ocean currents. "It's formed by fragmentation of magma, so it's basically small pieces of rock on top of each other that have formed an island," Watson told the BBC.
Hunga Tonga volcano eruption forms new S Pacific island
BBC News online
2015-03-12
Matt Watson, a reader in natural hazards at the University of Bristol, said the surface of the island was likely to be "highly unstable". "It will be very loose and unconsolidated material," he said. "It's formed by fragmentation of magma, so it's basically small pieces of rock on top of each other that have formed an island.
Could global warming SAVE mankind? Nuclear winter caused by a natural disaster would be reversed by pumping out greenhouse gases, study claims
Daily Mail online
2014-11-07
Dr Matt Watson of the University of Bristol added: 'It is an interesting idea, with an appropriate level of careful caveats, and probably worthy of further investigation, not least because it broadens the debate on climate engineering to countering natural, as opposed to anthropogenic threat.
Fake Volcano Can Solve Climate Problems, Scientists Say
FOX News online
2011-09-14
"With strong government support and in an emergency situation...the fastest we could deploy this system is two decades," Watson told Reuters, adding that a minimum 10 to 20 balloons globally would be needed to reduce atmospheric temperature by 2 degrees.
Articles (5)
Evaluating nonlinear maximum likelihood optimal estimation uncertainty in cloud and aerosol remote sensing
Atmospheric Science Letters
2020 Uncertainty estimates are important when retrieving properties of clouds and aerosols from satellites measurements. These measurements must be interpreted using a form of inverse theory, such as optimal estimation. In atmospheric remote sensing these inverse methods often assume that the forward model is linear in the region of uncertainty.
3D Reconstruction of Volcanic Ash Clouds Using Simulated Satellite Imagery
EGU General Assembly Conference Abstracts
2020 Volcanic ash suspended in the atmosphere can pose a significant hazard to aviation, with the potential to cause severe damage or shutdown of jet engines. Forecasts of ash contaminated airspace are generated using atmospheric transportation and dispersion models, among the inputs to these models are eruption source parameters such as cloud-top height and cloud volume.
Assimilating SEVIRI Satellite Observation into the Name‐III Dispersion Model to Improve Volcanic Ash Forecast
Techniques for Disaster Risk Management and Mitigation
2020 In recent years, the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) conducted a study for monitoring volcanic ash clouds using the Lagrangian atmospheric dispersion model called NAME (Numerical Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling Environment). The objective of this chapter is to investigate and enhance the predictive ability of the NAME‐III dispersion model to forecast the volcanic ash plumes by incorporating MSG‐SEVIRI satellite‐derived observations into the NAME model.
BVLOS Operations of Fixed-Wing UAVs for the Collection of Volcanic Ash Above Fuego Volcano, Guatemala
AIAA Scitech 2020 Forum
2020 This paper presents a series of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle flights that came about as the culmination of a method development project, collecting ash from volcanic plumes. Ash sampling from within plumes provides vital knowledge to improve volcanic ash-dispersion models, outputs that are used in hazard assessments including air traffic control.
Determining the three-dimensional structure of a volcanic plume using Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) imagery
Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research
2019 This study presents a photogrammetric method for 3D reconstruction of a volcanic plume outline to retrieve its spatial properties. A dataset of sequential multi-view images was collected, using a drone-mounted camera, for a small-scale volcanic plume emitted from Volcán Pacaya, Guatemala.
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