[Geysers] Remote thermal detection (Was: Lone Star)

[Ralph Taylor]

There used to be an infrared detector in the old Visitor Center.  The output
was analog and captured on paper charts.  Rick Hutchinson used this
instrument to get a more complete record of the Old Faithful intervals.  I
recall him saying that sometimes fog or steam clouds obscured the water
column and prevented the eruptions from registering.  Tim Thompson and I
tried to get the device working in 1997 or 1998 using an electronic recorder
(the paper chart recorder had died of old age by then) but we had no
success.

Ralph Taylor 

-----Original Message-----
From: geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu
[mailto:geysers-bounces at lists.wallawalla.edu] On Behalf Of Davis, Brian L.
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2011 3:30 PM
To: geysers at lists.wallawalla.edu
Subject: [Geysers] Remote thermal detection (Was: Lone Star)

> Lone Star might be an ideal candidate for a study using an infrared "game
scouting" camera.

I'm curious if anyone has ever taken a look at non-contact IR thermometers
for geyser (eruption) detection. I'm not sure how well they could "see"
through the high humidity... but I would think they might be ideal for
"watching" for a temperature rise in thermal channels or on the surface of a
geyser cone. Calibrated, they could even perhaps detect thermal cycling of
surface pools. As sensors go they don't seem unreasonably expensive, and
have the advantage of being completely removed from the geyser in question.
Pairing such an IR sensor with a simple datalogger could be a handy method
to do this, much smaller than a camera. Heck, while we're at it, I wonder if
a simple commercial PIR sensor could do it (with a suitable field of view).
Any thoughts? Has this been tried?

-- 
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