In 2010, considerable damage was caused in most parts of Europe due to the Icelandic Volcanic Eruption and similary Japan was heavily damaged due to the Sakurajima Eruption in Kyushu, Japan. Various countries are engrossed in damage and coping methods regarding volcanic eruptions, while currently Baekdu has become a matter of primary concern.

Lee Kwon-Ho, Professor from the Department of Geo-Informatics, has developed an ash observation system using satellites to monitor the volcanic activity around the Korean peninsula including Baekdu Mountain.

This research was supported by the National Meteorological Satellite Center and the National Emergency Management Agency, and it has been evaluated as an improved system in comparison to the current existing ash observation system.

According to this system, it can monitor volcanic craters at all times through a satellite observation source, it can detect when tremendous amounts of cloud ash is excreted when a volcanic eruption occurs, and these can be used as correspondence data. Specially when the Korean geostationary satellite Cheonrian is used, it can get consecutive data for a maximum 15 minute, so a system of more efficient monitoring of volcanic activity and ash observation is arranged.

Professor Lee Kwon-Ho had a patent application relating to ash observation methods using infrared channels and resolution methods of characteristic value from ash with the National Meteorological Satellite Center in July, 2013 and it was published in the international science citation index.

Using infrared channels, the technology can reduce the interference components from yellow dust and gritty dust maximally so it can detect ash observations accurately and it is efficient in analyzing the altitude, optical thickness, and particle size of ash simultaneously.

The developed technology is being offered to the Meteorological Administration and used to detect ash in South-East Asia.