The National Performance Review presented the award to the AVO for contributing to a government that works better and costs less by adapting their mission of monitoring volcanic activity to improve airline safety. There is a crucial need to keep planes away from airborne volcanic ash. By monitoring Alaska's volcanoes and making forecasts of eruptive activity, the AVO uses their research to provide a vital service to the flying public and residents of Alaska communities located along the North Pacific's 'Ring of Fire'. The two agencies use the information to alert pilots and air-traffic controllers so planes can be safely routed around volcanic ash clouds.
Volcanic ash 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. Hazardous concentrations of volcanic ash, undetectable by present-day radar systems, can drift at high altitudes for hundreds of miles following an eruption. The busy air routes of the northern Pacific are especially vulnerable to such hazards due to the many active volcanoes in Alaska and the Russian Far East. AVO scientists work closely with their Russian counterparts to receive timely information about eruptions on the Kamchatka Peninsula that can affect international flights originating in Alaska.