The opportunity of flying with balloons over the summit of Kilimanjaro provides the possibility of obtaining a diversity of scientific observations and documentations.

Focus will be on the short-distance remote-sensing control of the following features:

Volcanic
Kilimanjaro is a young, dormant stratovolcano with no documented historical eruptions. However, Kilimanjaro is well known to have active fumaroles in its summit crater. Flying over the summit will provide the opportunity, for the first time, to use an infrared camera for spotting active fumaroles fields, as well as invisible thermal anomalies within the summit crater of Kibo.

Morphological
The morphological evolution of the huge Kilimanjaro mountain complex has been characterized by volcanic construction, but also by post-volcanic collapses with formation

of extensive fields of lahar breccias and debris avalanches that can best be evaluated by aerial inspection. This can provide a major insight into the morphogenesis of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but can also helping judging its future behavior.

The results and their analysis will be treated and reported by the scientific team to be then placed at the disposal of researches worldwide. This is hoped to be an important contribution to the understanding of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Paleo-environmental
The ice cap of Kilimanjaro is in a steady and sharp decline during the last decades. Vertical photographic documentation of the present extension and delimitation of the glaciers will help archiving the present situation as well as understanding past and future changes. A combination of the information on the thermal state of the crater area with the situation of the extent of the glacier can provide insight to whether the reduction in ice volume is purely climatic, or if it is also contributed by geothermal effects.

KILIMANJARO IN GENERAL

GOALS OF THE EXPEDITION

RECONNAISSANCE-WEEK 2009