Wessels back to volcanoes...

[Rick Wessels]

Dear GLIMS colleagues,

My time with GLIMS has been an extraordinary 2.9 years of exploring 
the world of glaciology, pursuing fascinating new research, and meeting 
new friends. But now I have been given the unique opportunity to move my 
research focus back to active volcanoes.  I will be moving to the USGS 
Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) in Anchorage, Alaska in a few days to 
begin a research geophysicist position there doing mostly volcano remote 
sensing.  While I am a bit sad that glaciology will now be reduced to a 
very small part of my research, working at a volcano observatory as a 
full-time scientist has been a dream of mine since 1988 when I interned 
with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory helping them study the (then) 
new Mount St. Helens lava dome.  

If you are curious about my new job, I will have two main tasks at AVO:  
Volcano monitoring and developing new remote sensing research and 
applications. For the first task, I will mostly assist with the day to 
day active volcano monitoring via sensors like MODIS, AVHRR, and GOES for 
thermal anomaly and ash detection.  The volcanoes of the northern Pacific 
can put out a lot of volcanic ash which poses serious hazards to jet 
aircraft. The 1989 eruption of Redoubt volcano damaged five jets which flew 
into its ash cloud. One jetliner with 243 passengers aboard temporarily 
lost power to all four engines and nearly crashed before safely landing 
in Anchorage. Damage to the Boeing 747 totaled nearly $100 million. (see 
http://www.avo.alaska.edu/genrl_info/pdfs/usgsfs030_97_ash.pdf).  It is 
one of AVO's responsibilities (and several other organizations globally) 
to make sure that we detect major eruption events in time to notify the 
authorities to reroute air traffic.  My research and applications task at 
AVO will be to continue to develop new monitoring techniques, collaborate 
on the ongoing hazard mapping projects as a high resolution remote sensing 
geologist and to hopefully reinvigorate my past life of studying the 
interaction of active volcanoes and tectonics.

I will continue to have a small role in support of GLIMS and will 
hopefully continue to work with Jeff Kargel and several others on a few, 
yet to be funded, research efforts.  I will certainly continue to help with 
glacier hazard response since that task meshes well with my new volcano 
responsibilities. If you do still have GLIMS and ASTER related questions 
for me, I will be glad to try to answer them or at least forward it to the 
proper person (with my usual "lightning" fast response time ;).

Thanks to all of you for welcoming me into GLIMS and the field of 
glaciology.  I hope to see and work with many of you in the future.

My Warmest Regards,
-- Rick

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Rick Wessels, Ph.D.            rwessels at usgs.gov
Arizona State University / U.S. Geological Survey
2255 N. Gemini Drive          Phone(928)-556-7022
Flagstaff, AZ 86001           FAX           -7014

After May 1, 2003
Alaska Volcano Observatory     rwessels at usgs.gov
U.S. Geological Survey Alaska Science Center
4200 University Drive
Anchorage,  AK 99508
voice: 907-786-7492    fax: 907-786-7425
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