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   Commercial jet aircraft carrying thousands of passengers and millions of dollars in cargo, in a daily routine, pass over areas hundreds of volcanoes that are capable of sudden explosive eruptions as they travel through the world's busy air traffic corridors. More than half of the world's active volcanoes above sea level lie within an area of high volatility known as the "Ring of Fire". This arc stretching from the country of New Zealand, along the eastern edge of Asia, north across the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, and south along the coast of North and South America is an area of high density commercial air traffic. In addition,  USGS notes that on an  average of 4 days per year in the North Pacific region (segment of the "Ring of Fire"), volcanic ash is present above 30,000; most large jet aircraft cruise  within an altitude range between 30,000- 43,000 ft. (image to the right- link to map of world's volcanoes )
     In response to problems caused by volcanic activity,  the World Organization of Volcano Observatories (mission statement) was established in 1981 where scientists work collaboratively in sharing their findings with others. There are three such observatories bordering and within the Pacific Rim that play a vital role in seismic monitoring of their respective regions of the "Ring of Fire"; they are the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO), the Russian Academy of Science's Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruptions Response Team (KVERT) and the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO).
     Yet ground-based monitoring stations do not provide stand alone support and reliability in forecasting and tracking volcanic activity. In addition, dangerous and costly encounters with volcanic ash happen because ash clouds are difficult for flight crews to distinguish from ordinary clouds due to restricted nighttime visibility, inclement weather and deficiencies of aircraft radar. Airliners to date are equipped with a forward-looking, onboard radar system but this is primarily a weather radar system designed to display storm cells in intensities of green, yellow and red being the most severe; however, it does not have the capability, nor was it designed to adequately, if at all, display volcanic ash.