Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe

A week or so ago there was this big volcano eruption in Tonga that created Tsunamis and such. Terrible stuff.

I knew that big events like this can create pressure waves in the air that can travel across the globe. I just recently installed an air pressure sensor, a BME280 to my radio network. I had my doubts if such a cheap sensor could actually detect such faint changes in air pressure. Well, it's more sensitive than i thought

Let's take a look at the relevant data:

+

+ 990 +---------------------- +- |        +        + +   + 989.8 |-+ + | + | + 989.6 |-+ + | + 989.4 |-+ + | + | + 989.2 |-+ + hPa       | + 989 |-+                   *** + **** |                  **** +**   ** |* *      ********* +*     ** 988.8 |************ + | + 988.6 |-+ + | + | + 988.4 |-+ + |        +        +       + +   + 988.2 +---------------------- +- 15.01    15.01    15.01   15.01 + 15.01 18:00    18:30    19:00   19:30 + 21:30

                                                   Air pressure BME   



------------------------------------ -------------------------------------+ +  **    +        +        +      +       +        +        | **                             +-| ***                            | * *                            | ** *                            +-| *  ******                       | *     *  *                       +-| **        **                      | *          *        *             | **          *       ****           +-| **           *      **  *           | *     **   **          +-| **    *     *      *** | *   **     **   *** * | *   *       *   *     **      *******             +-| **  *        ***      **   ******  **********      | * *         ***      *****                **   +-| ***                  ***   | **                   **  |  **| +        +        +      +       +        +        | ------------------------------------ -------------------------------------+ 15.01    15.01    15.01    15.01   15.01    15.01    15.01 20:00    20:30    21:00    22:00   22:30    23:00    23:30 Logtime UTC href="?abspart=1;part=1;displaytype=displaycode;node_id=11140670">[download]

This corresponds quite well with data released by my government. So, it turns out you can use a cheap sensor from Ebay to detect volcano eruptions (or above ground nuclear tests). Fascinating!

With a network of these sensors over a larger geographic area, it should be possible to triangulate the (approximate) location of an event like that.

perl -e 'use Crypt::Digest::SHA256 qw[sha256_hex]; print substr(sha256_hex("the Answer To Life, The Universe And Everything"), 6, 2), "\n";'

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Re: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by jmlynesjr (Deacon) on Jan 22, 2022 at 00:12 UTC
The same sensor was used in the Open Source Ventilator project. An international group of mostly Hams designed a ventilator that could be built for under $200. The BMP 280 was sensitive enough to detect all phases of respiration and provided data to an Arduino Nano to control the air valves. James There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over...	[reply]
Re^2: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by LanX (Saint) on Jan 22, 2022 at 13:06 UTC
Oh I remember when everybody thought it was just about the number of ventilators ... (And Trump quickly tried to buy off some European companies) At some point ppl started to noticed that the real shortage was the number of qualified personal to operate those ventilators. Tho I might still see the day where I get bionic implants with AI to control my lungs ... Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Jan 22, 2022 at 15:38 UTC
Just chiming in to relate: one of the first computer controlled x-ray machines had a buffer overflow—triggered by a system clock event or something that wasn’t caught in testing—that caused the emitter to remain active instead of flashing on and off. Patient died consequently in the misery one would expect.	[reply]
Re^4: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by afoken (Chancellor) on Jan 22, 2022 at 18:04 UTC
Re^5: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by cavac (Prior) on Jan 24, 2022 at 07:19 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^4: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by LanX (Saint) on Jan 22, 2022 at 15:48 UTC
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by jmlynesjr (Deacon) on Jan 23, 2022 at 01:13 UTC
The actual problem turned out to be the oxygen supply. Hospitals weren't designed for that many patients on hi-flow oxygen. The Veteran's Administration contracted for trailer mounted oxygen generators that could supplement fixed generation systems. Only around 20% of vent patients are ever successfully weaned off, but you have to try something. James There's never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over...	[reply]
Re: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by LanX (Saint) on Jan 21, 2022 at 13:36 UTC
How can you tell it wasn't something else? Like a slammed door or a farting dog nearby? Triangulations of pets is certainly promising tho... ;) update added standard irony indicator	[reply]
Re^2: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by cavac (Prior) on Jan 21, 2022 at 17:38 UTC
How can you tell it wasn't something else? I wondered about that as well. The curves match closely to data released by others, including government agencies and random people on the internet showing data from their weather stations. There are few things that can have this signature, and there was no news broadcasts about North Korea testing another bomb. Like a slammed door I live in a small house, not the VAB at KSC ;-) or a farting dog nearby? The event lasted over 3 hours with a relatively high pressure change. The amount of methane released during a fart like this would have meant that both Greenpeace and the Guinness world record people would have been banging on my door at the same time. ;-) `perl -e 'use Crypt::Digest::SHA256 qw[sha256_hex]; print substr(sha256_hex("the Answer To Life, The Universe And Everything"), 6, 2), "\n";'`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by Fletch (Bishop) on Jan 21, 2022 at 20:27 UTC
Dog not pictured just out of frame . . . I've got one of the simpler models of the Enviro+ (mine's just the plain "Enviro") but it's got the pressure sensor mentioned as well as a gas detector which might be suitable for tracking canine methane emissions. I don't have things automagically running and mine's indoors so I don't have any cool data to share but I've been happy with mine if anyone's looking for similar hardware. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie. The cake is a lie.	[reply]
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by LanX (Saint) on Jan 21, 2022 at 18:36 UTC
> The amount of methane released during a fart However unlikely, better avoid lighting matches around certain dogs. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]
Re^2: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by kcott (Archbishop) on Jan 21, 2022 at 13:42 UTC
"Triangulations of pets is certainly promising tho..." Although, the pets would need to have bad guts for this to be useful. :-) — Ken	[reply]
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by Bod (Parson) on Jan 22, 2022 at 00:27 UTC
Although, the pets would need to have bad guts for this to be useful. :-) Have you met my dog on a bad day then???	[reply]
Re^4: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by kcott (Archbishop) on Jan 22, 2022 at 03:16 UTC
Re^3: Plotting a volcano eruption halfway across the globe by LanX (Saint) on Jan 21, 2022 at 14:01 UTC
well ... I can only tell that my flatmate loved her old dog and I desperately needed that room when I started studying in a new town. Cheers Rolf _{(addicted to the Perl Programming Language :) Wikisyntax for the Monastery}	[reply]

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