Prospects for Detecting Volcanic Events with Microwave Radiometry

Identifying volcanic activity on worlds with optically thick atmospheres with passive microwave radiometry has been proposed as a means of skirting the atmospheric interference that plagues near infrared observations. By probing deeper into the surface, microwave radiometers may also be sensitive to...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2020-08, Vol.12 (16), p.2544
Main Authors: MacKenzie, Shannon M., Lorenz, Ralph D.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorptivity
Eruptions
First principles
Infrared radiometers
Lava
Microwave radiometers
microwave radiometry
Radiometers
Radiometry
Remote sensing
SMAP
Soil moisture
Solar system
Spatial discrimination
Spatial resolution
Temperature dependence
Volcanic activity
Volcanoes
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Summary:Identifying volcanic activity on worlds with optically thick atmospheres with passive microwave radiometry has been proposed as a means of skirting the atmospheric interference that plagues near infrared observations. By probing deeper into the surface, microwave radiometers may also be sensitive to older flows and thus amenable for investigations where repeat observations are infrequent. In this investigation we explore the feasibility of this tactic using data from the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission in three case studies: the 2018 Kilauea eruption, the 2018 Oct-Nov eruption at Fuego, and the ongoing activity at Erta Ale in Ethiopia. We find that despite SMAP’s superior spatial resolution, observing flows that are small fractions of the observing footprint are difficult to detect—even in resampled data products. Furthermore, the absorptivity of the flow, which can be temperature dependent, can limit the depths to which SMAP is sensitive. We thus demonstrate that the lower limit of detectability at L-band (1.41 GHz) is in practice higher than expected from first principles.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs12162544