Watching the S2 in Flight

CRATER science principal investigator Jay Tomlin uses binoculars to track the flight progress of the S2 Black Swift uncrewed aircraft system (UAS) as it flights a sortie to gather imagery and trace gas data over the Rincon de la Vieja volcanic system in Costa Rica. The S2 is able to get down to about 30 feet above the trees, and is being used by the CRATER team to investigate the use of an uncrewed aircraft for volcanic trace gas sampling, in order to better understand the impact of elevated carbon dioxide emissions on vegetation.