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Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 17746

Special Issue Editors

National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, Rome, Italy
Interests: remote sensing; earth observation; geodynamics; volcanology; radar imaging
Instituto CEDIAC, National University of Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina
Interests: remote sensing; Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR); crustal deformation
Barcelona Supercomputing Center, Barcelona, Spain
Interests: satellite image analysis; Lidar remote sensing; atmospheric physics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues

Volcanoes are characterized by many natural hazards that need continuous monitoring, and part of the global population is directly at risk from volcanoes. Volcanic activities, in particular gas emissions and volcanic eruptions, are spectacular, but dangerous to study on-site. Furthermore, many hazardous volcanoes are located in remote areas, or have rudimentary or no ground monitoring.

In the last decades, satellite, airborne, and ground-based remote sensing have proved to be key tools to monitor active volcanoes, to assess their likelihood of eruption and determine impacts on the environment and infrastructures. From UV to microwave wavelengths, remote sensing has demonstrated unprecedented capabilities for volcano monitoring, and has been employed to study phenomena such as volcanic ash clouds, thermal anomalies associated with active lava flows and domes, and ground deformations due to magma intrusions. Nowadays, the scientific information retrieved is routinely employed in all phases of disaster risk management.

This Special Issue invites manuscripts focused on any topic related to remote sensing data for volcano monitoring, from innovative analysis techniques to studies on specific pre-eruptive/sin-eruptive events, with the aim of unravelling a variety of volcano-related geohazards, such as ash dispersion in the atmosphere, tephra fallout and lava flows, surface deformations, earthquakes, volcanic gases, landslides and hydrogeological hazards.

Contributions showing the synergistic use of multiple sensors, the integration of near-real time monitoring and the implementation in hazard level assessment and for volcanic risk mitigation are particularly welcome.

Dr. Elisa Trasatti
Dr. Pablo Euillades
Dr. Andrew T. Prata
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • multi-spectral
  • radar interferometry
  • synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
  • volcanic gas
  • thermal anomaly
  • volcanic ash clouds
  • volcano deformation
  • volcanic source
  • eruption plumes
  • hazard mitigation

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

47 pages, 28501 KiB  
Article
Clues of Lithosphere, Atmosphere and Ionosphere Variations Possibly Related to the Preparation of La Palma 19 September 2021 Volcano Eruption
by Dedalo Marchetti, Kaiguang Zhu, Hanshuo Zhang, Zeren Zhima, Rui Yan, Xuhui Shen, Wenqi Chen, Yuqi Cheng, Xiaodan He, Ting Wang, Jiami Wen, Donghua Zhang and Yiqun Zhang
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(19), 5001; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14195001 - 08 Oct 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2233
Abstract
On 19 September 2021, La Palma Cumbre Vieja Volcano started an eruption classified as Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI) 3. In this study, at least the six months prior to such an event have been investigated to search for possible lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere bottom-up interactions. The [...] Read more.
On 19 September 2021, La Palma Cumbre Vieja Volcano started an eruption classified as Volcanic Explosive Index (VEI) 3. In this study, at least the six months prior to such an event have been investigated to search for possible lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere bottom-up interactions. The lithosphere has been analysed in terms of seismicity getting advantages from the high-density local seismic network. Possible atmospheric alterations related to the volcano emissions or release of gases due to the uplift of the magmatic chamber have been searched in SO2, aerosol, dimethyl sulphide, and CO. The magnetic field on Earth’s surface has been studied by ground geomagnetic observatories. The status of the ionosphere has been investigated with two satellite missions: China Seismo Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES) and European Space Agency Swarm constellation, with Total Electron Content (TEC) retrieved from global maps. We identified a temporal migration of the seismicity from November 2020 at a depth of 40 km that seems associable to magma migration, firstly to a deep chamber at about 15 km depth and in the last 10 days in a shallow magma chamber at less than 5 km depth. The atmospheric composition, ground geomagnetic field, and ionosphere showed anomalies from more than three months before the eruption, suggesting a possible influence from the bottom geo-layers to the upper ones. CSES-01 detected an increase of electron density, confirmed by TEC data, and alterations of vertical magnetic field on ground Guimar observatory that are temporal compatible with some volcanic low seismic activity (very likely due to the magma uplift), suggesting an eventual electromagnetic disturbance from the lithosphere to the ionosphere. A final increase of carbon monoxide 1.5 months before the eruption with unusually high values of TEC suggests the last uplifting of the magma before the eruption, confirmed by a very high shallow seismicity that preceded the eruption by ten days. This work underlines the importance of integrating several observation platforms from ground and overall space to understand geophysics better, and, in particular, the natural hazard affecting our planet. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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22 pages, 4236 KiB  
Article
Integration of Remote Sensing and Offshore Geophysical Data for Monitoring the Short-Term Morphological Evolution of an Active Volcanic Flank: A Case Study from Stromboli Island
by Daniele Casalbore, Federico Di Traglia, Claudia Romagnoli, Massimiliano Favalli, Teresa Gracchi, Carlo Tacconi Stefanelli, Teresa Nolesini, Guglielmo Rossi, Matteo Del Soldato, Irene Manzella, Paul Cole, Nicola Casagli and Francesco Latino Chiocci
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(18), 4605; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14184605 - 15 Sep 2022
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 2370
Abstract
The Sciara del Fuoco (SdF) collapse scar at Stromboli is an active volcanic area affected by rapid morphological changes due to explosive/effusive eruptions and mass-wasting processes. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of an integrated analysis of multi-temporal remote [...] Read more.
The Sciara del Fuoco (SdF) collapse scar at Stromboli is an active volcanic area affected by rapid morphological changes due to explosive/effusive eruptions and mass-wasting processes. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of an integrated analysis of multi-temporal remote sensing (photogrammetry, COSMO-SkyMed Synthetic Aperture Radar amplitude image) and marine geophysical data (multibeam and side scan sonar data) to characterize the main morphological, textural, and volumetric changes that occurred along the SdF slope in the 2020–2021 period. The analysis showed the marked erosive potential of the 19 May 2021 pyroclastic density current generated by a crater rim collapse, which mobilized a minimum volume of 44,000 m3 in the upper Sciara del Fuoco slope and eroded 350,000–400,000 m3 of material just considering the shallow-water setting. The analysis allowed us also to constrain the main factors controlling the emplacement of different lava flows and overflows during the monitored period. Despite the morphological continuity between the subaerial and submarine slope, textural variations in the SdF primarily depend on different processes and characteristics of the subaerial slope, the coastal area, the nearshore, and “deeper” marine areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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18 pages, 3585 KiB  
Article
Data-Driven Random Forest Models for Detecting Volcanic Hot Spots in Sentinel-2 MSI Images
by Claudia Corradino, Eleonora Amato, Federica Torrisi and Ciro Del Negro
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(17), 4370; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14174370 - 02 Sep 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1854
Abstract
Volcanic thermal anomalies are monitored with an increased application of optical satellite sensors to improve the ability to identify renewed volcanic activity. Hotspot detection algorithms adopting a fixed threshold are widely used to detect thermal anomalies with a minimal occurrence of false alerts. [...] Read more.
Volcanic thermal anomalies are monitored with an increased application of optical satellite sensors to improve the ability to identify renewed volcanic activity. Hotspot detection algorithms adopting a fixed threshold are widely used to detect thermal anomalies with a minimal occurrence of false alerts. However, when used on a global scale, these algorithms miss some subtle thermal anomalies that occur. Analyzing satellite data sources with machine learning (ML) algorithms has been shown to be efficient in extracting volcanic thermal features. Here, a data-driven algorithm is developed in Google Earth Engine (GEE) to map thermal anomalies associated with lava flows that erupted recently at different volcanoes around the world (e.g., Etna, Cumbre Vieja, Geldingadalir, Pacaya, and Stromboli). We used high spatial resolution images acquired by a Sentinel-2 MultiSpectral Instrument (MSI) and a random forest model, which avoids the setting of fixed a priori thresholds. The results indicate that the model achieves better performance than traditional approaches with good generalization capabilities and high sensitivity to less intense volcanic thermal anomalies. We found that this model is sufficiently robust to be successfully used with new eruptive scenes never seen before on a global scale. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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28 pages, 10007 KiB  
Article
A Multi-Parametric and Multi-Layer Study to Investigate the Largest 2022 Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai Eruptions
by Serena D’Arcangelo, Alessandro Bonforte, Angelo De Santis, Salvatore Roberto Maugeri, Loredana Perrone, Maurizio Soldani, Giovanni Arena, Federico Brogi, Massimo Calcara, Saioa A. Campuzano, Gianfranco Cianchini, Alfredo Del Corpo, Domenico Di Mauro, Cristiano Fidani, Alessandro Ippolito, Stefania Lepidi, Dedalo Marchetti, Adriano Nardi, Martina Orlando, Alessandro Piscini, Mauro Regi, Dario Sabbagh, Zeren Zhima and Rui Yanadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(15), 3649; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14153649 - 29 Jul 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2813
Abstract
On 20 December 2021, after six quiet years, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted abruptly. Then, on 15 January 2022, the largest eruption produced a plume well registered from satellites and destroyed the volcanic cone previously formed in 2015, connecting the two islands. [...] Read more.
On 20 December 2021, after six quiet years, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted abruptly. Then, on 15 January 2022, the largest eruption produced a plume well registered from satellites and destroyed the volcanic cone previously formed in 2015, connecting the two islands. We applied a multi-parametric and multi-layer study to investigate all the possible pre-eruption signals and effects of this volcanic activity in the lithosphere, atmosphere, and ionosphere. We focused our attention on: (a) seismological features considering the eruption in terms of an earthquake with equivalent energy released in the lithosphere; (b) atmospheric parameters, such as skin and air temperature, outgoing longwave radiation (OLR), cloud cover, relative humidity from climatological datasets; (c) varying magnetic field and electron density observed by ground magnetometers and satellites, even if the event was in the recovery phase of an intense geomagnetic storm. We found different precursors of this unique event in the lithosphere, as well as the effects due to the propagation of acoustic gravity and pressure waves and magnetic and electromagnetic coupling in the form of signals detected by ground stations and satellite data. All these parameters and their detailed investigation confirm the lithosphere–atmosphere–ionosphere coupling (LAIC) models introduced for natural hazards such as volcano eruptions and earthquakes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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13 pages, 4473 KiB  
Article
Investigating Phases of Thermal Unrest at Ambrym (Vanuatu) Volcano through the Normalized Hot Spot Indices Tool and the Integration with the MIROVA System
by Francesco Marchese, Diego Coppola, Alfredo Falconieri, Nicola Genzano and Nicola Pergola
Remote Sens. 2022, 14(13), 3136; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs14133136 - 29 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1515
Abstract
Ambrym is an active volcanic island, located in the Vanuatu archipelago, consisting of a 12 km-wide summit caldera. This open vent volcano is characterized by an almost persistent degassing activity which occurs in the Benbow and Marum craters, which were also the site [...] Read more.
Ambrym is an active volcanic island, located in the Vanuatu archipelago, consisting of a 12 km-wide summit caldera. This open vent volcano is characterized by an almost persistent degassing activity which occurs in the Benbow and Marum craters, which were also the site of recent lava lakes. On 15 December 2018, about three years after an intense lava effusion, the first recorded since 1989, a small-scale intra-caldera fissure eruption occurred. On 16 December, the eruption stopped, and the lava lakes at the Benbow and Marum craters were drained. In this work, we investigated the thermal activity of the Ambrym volcano, before, during, and after the 15 December 2018 eruption, using daytime Sentinel-2 (S2) Multispectral Instruments (MSI) and Landsat-8 (L8) Operational Land Imager (OLI) data, at a mid-high spatial resolution. The results were integrated with Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) observations. Outputs of the Normalized Hotspot Indices (NHI) tool, retrieved from S2-MSI and L8-OLI data, show that the thermal activity at the Ambrym craters increased about three weeks before the 15 December 2018 lava effusion. This information is consistent with the estimates of volcanic radiative power (VRP), which were performed by the Middle Infrared Observation of Volcanic Activity (MIROVA) system, by analyzing the nighttime MODIS data. The latter revealed a significant increase of VRP, with values above 700 MW at the end of the October–November 2018 period. Moreover, the drastic reduction of thermal emissions at the craters, marked by the NHI tool since the day of the fissure eruption, is consistent with the drop in the lava lake level that was independently suggested in a previous study. These results demonstrate that the S2-MSI and L8-OLI time series, combined with infrared MODIS observations, may contribute to detecting increasing trends in lava lake activity, which may precede effusive eruptions at the open vent volcanoes. This study addresses some challenging scenarios regarding the definition of possible threshold levels (e.g., in terms of VRP and total Short Wave Infrared radiance) from the NHI and MIROVA datasets, which could require special attention from local authorities in terms of the occurrence of possible future eruptions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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19 pages, 6626 KiB  
Article
Tropospheric Volcanic SO2 Mass and Flux Retrievals from Satellite. The Etna December 2018 Eruption
by Stefano Corradini, Lorenzo Guerrieri, Hugues Brenot, Lieven Clarisse, Luca Merucci, Federica Pardini, Alfred J. Prata, Vincent J. Realmuto, Dario Stelitano and Nicolas Theys
Remote Sens. 2021, 13(11), 2225; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs13112225 - 07 Jun 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 2708
Abstract
The presence of volcanic clouds in the atmosphere affects air quality, the environment, climate, human health and aviation safety. The importance of the detection and retrieval of volcanic SO2 lies with risk mitigation as well as with the possibility of providing insights [...] Read more.
The presence of volcanic clouds in the atmosphere affects air quality, the environment, climate, human health and aviation safety. The importance of the detection and retrieval of volcanic SO2 lies with risk mitigation as well as with the possibility of providing insights into the mechanisms that cause eruptions. Due to their intrinsic characteristics, satellite measurements have become an essential tool for volcanic monitoring. In recent years, several sensors, with different spectral, spatial and temporal resolutions, have been launched into orbit, significantly increasing the effectiveness of the estimation of the various parameters related to the state of volcanic activity. In this work, the SO2 total masses and fluxes were obtained from several satellite sounders—the geostationary (GEO) MSG-SEVIRI and the polar (LEO) Aqua/Terra-MODIS, NPP/NOAA20-VIIRS, Sentinel5p-TROPOMI, MetopA/MetopB-IASI and Aqua-AIRS—and compared to one another. As a test case, the Christmas 2018 Etna eruption was considered. The characteristics of the eruption (tropospheric with low ash content), the large amount of (simultaneously) available data and the different instrument types and SO2 columnar abundance retrieval strategies make this cross-comparison particularly relevant. Results show the higher sensitivity of TROPOMI and IASI and a general good agreement between the SO2 total masses and fluxes obtained from all the satellite instruments. The differences found are either related to inherent instrumental sensitivity or the assumed and/or calculated SO2 cloud height considered as input for the satellite retrievals. Results indicate also that, despite their low revisit time, the LEO sensors are able to provide information on SO2 flux over large time intervals. Finally, a complete error assessment on SO2 flux retrievals using SEVIRI data was realized by considering uncertainties in wind speed and SO2 abundance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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24 pages, 5335 KiB  
Article
PyTirCam-1.0: A Python Model to Manage Thermal Infrared Camera Data
by Benedetta Calusi, Daniele Andronico, Emilio Pecora, Emilio Biale and Matteo Cerminara
Remote Sens. 2020, 12(24), 4056; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rs12244056 - 11 Dec 2020
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2999
Abstract
Thermal-infrared remote sensing is used to monitor and study hazardous volcanic phenomena. Thermal cameras are often used by monitoring centers and laboratories. A physical comprehension of their behavior is needed to perform quantitative measurements, which are strongly dependent on camera features and settings. [...] Read more.
Thermal-infrared remote sensing is used to monitor and study hazardous volcanic phenomena. Thermal cameras are often used by monitoring centers and laboratories. A physical comprehension of their behavior is needed to perform quantitative measurements, which are strongly dependent on camera features and settings. This makes it possible to control the radiance measurements related to volcanic processes and, thus, to detect thermal anomalies, validate models, and extract source parameters. We review the theoretical background related to the camera behavior beside the main features affecting thermal measurements: Atmospheric transmission, object emissivity and reflectivity, camera characteristics, and external optics. We develop a Python package, PythTirCam-1.0, containing pyTirTran, a radiative transfer model based on the HITRAN database and the camera spectral response. This model is compared with the empirical algorithm implemented into a commercial camera. These two procedures are validated using a simple experiment involving pyTirConv, an algorithm developed to recover the radiometric thermal data from compressed images collected by monitoring centers. Python scripts corresponding to the described methods are provided as open-source code. This study can be applied to a wide variety of applications and, specifically, to different volcanic processes, from earth and space. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Multi-Sensor Remote Sensing Data for Volcanic Hazards Monitoring)
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