Mouginis-Mark, Peter
REMOTE SENSING OBSERVATIONS FOR VOLCANO MONITORING AND HAZARD
MITIGATION
Peter J. MOUGINIS-MARK
University of Hawali, USA
Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology
2525 Correa Road
Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 USA
pmm@pgd.hawaii.edu
Technical Session — IC24-Disaster Mitigation
Paper Number 520
KEY WORDS: Volcanoes, Remote Sensing, Hazard Mitigation.
ABSTRACT
Volcanic eruptions are spectacular but dangerous phenomena to study on-site, and they present many challenges
because of the diversity of activity and their remote locations. Indeed, the tragic loss of life at Galeras and Mt. Unzen
volcanoes in the early 1990s illustrates the dangers associated with studying active volcanoes at close quarters.
However, much progress has been made in volcano remote sensing during the last decade, and further substantive
developments are expected over the next few years as several countries fly next-generation spacecraft. In particular,
NASA's Terra spacecraft wil] provide unprecedented capabilities for volcano monitoring, and a team of 20 remote
sensing volcanologists have been working for almost a decade to develop algorithms for the routine monitoring of
active volcanoes. Aircraft data also provide valuable data sets, and serve as experimental test beds for future
spaceborne topographic and thermal infrared mapping systems. Many parts of the spectrum, from UV to microwave
wavelengths are now employed to study such phenomena as volcanic ash clouds, the thermal anomalies associated with
active lava flows and domes, ground deformation due to intrusions. Topographic mapping has also been conducted
from satellites and aircraft in order to detect surface changes due to erosion of pyroclastic flows or the formation of new
lava flow fields. This paper reviews many of these methods, drawing upon ERS-2, GOES, Landsat, RADARSAT,
SPOT and TOPSAR data collected for volcanoes in Hawaii, the Galapagos Islands and the Philippines. The value of
radar remote sensing observations of volcanoes in remote parts of the world (e.g., South America, Central Africa, and
Indonesia) will also be described. On-going techniques that permit the near real-time satellite observation of volcanic
eruptions will be discussed in order to provide a basis for assisting volcano disaster mitigation.
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Volcanic Hazards
There are numerous types of volcanic hazards, including
lava flows, mudflows (called *lahars"), pyroclastic flows,
and giant eruption clouds (Ti/ling, 1989). Indeed, people
are at risk not only on the ground, but also in the air since
jet aircraft are particularly susceptible to failure if ash
from a volcanic eruption cloud is ingested into the engines
(Casadevall, 1994a, b). Frequently, field conditions are
challenging and/or dangerous (Fig. 1), so that there is a
significant effort underway within the United States, the
United Kingdom, and Australia to develop remote sensing
techniques to interpret on-going eruptions (Mouginis-Mark
et al., 2000a). Often it is in the recovery stage of an
Figure 1. As part of a NASA-funded research project, field work
eruption ‘where satellite‘ remote sensing data are most has been conducted on Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines, which
p 8 had a major eruption in June 1991. Here we see a field party
helpful to the disaster manager, but it is also important that (people in foreground provide scale) exploring one of the many
archives of satellite data are developed to allow remote river valleys that were initially buried under pyroclastic flows,
sensing scientist to aid in disaster mitigation via studies of but have then been eroded by heavy rains to produce major
the pre- and post-eruption characteristics of the surface. mudflows (“lahars”) that threaten downslope settlements.
Numerous remote sensing efforts to use imaging radar, SRTM,
TOPSAR, Landsat and Ikonos data to evaluate the risks in the
area are underway in the United States and the Philippines.
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000. 905
