Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHHR) has provided daily syn-
optic (1 km/pixel) coverage of the entire globe and has been effective in detecting
and tracking volcanic clouds since the early 1980s. The NOAA Geostationary
Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) series has provided reliable weather
forecasting data for North America, and has been useful for tracking volcanic
plumes and drifting ash clouds. In Europe, the METEOSAT geostationary plat-
form has served in an effectively identical capacity for EUMETSAT, as has
the MTSAT series over Eastern Asia for the Japan Meteorological Agency. Work
on airborne volcanic ash (e.g. Prata,
1989a
; Schneider
et al
.,
1995
; Dean
et al
.,
2004
; Pavolonis
et al
.,
2006
) and sulfur dioxide (Prata and Grant,
2001
; Watson
et al
.,
2004
; Krotkov
et al
.,
2010
; Carn
et al
.,
2011
; Clarisse
et al
.,
2012
) has
exploited one or more of these classic instruments, and newer ones, for studying
volcanic plumes and clouds at regional scale (see also
Chapter 7
).
9.2.3 Sampling missions
Multispectral orbital sampling missions, typically in Sun-synchronous polar
orbit and operating at substantially higher spatial resolutions (e.g. 15
-
120 m/pixel),
have revisit intervals of days to weeks. Their relatively narrow swath widths
(60
-
180 km) require them to point off-nadir at target volcanoes, requiring constant
comprehensive planning and scheduling of competing observations. This adds
enormous mission complexity and, combined with other operational constraints,
results in a duty cycle typically an order of magnitude smaller than for
”
mapping missions. Early work with Landsat data at relatively high spatial reso-
lution (40 m/pixel visible, 120 m/pixel thermal infrared) focused on detecting
thermal anomalies (Rothery
et al
.,
1988
; Oppenheimer
et al
.,
1993
; Denniss
et al
.,
1998
). Later, Landsat-based analyses and modeling focused on assessing
the thermal properties of lava
“
always-on
flows (e.g. Pieri
et al
.,
1990
) and other deposits.
More recently, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Re
ection
radiometer (ASTER), along with Landsat, has compiled a comprehensive land
surface data set (now over 3 million images or
) since the year 2000,
including a systematic acquisition of ASTER data over the world
“
granules
”
s volcanoes that
have been active since the Holocene (Siebert and Simkin,
2002
). ASTER currently
acquires 15 m/pixel data in three visible
-
near-infrared bands (0.5
-
0.9 um; VNIR).
In addition, between 2000 and 2008 it acquired data at 30 m/pixel in six short-
wave-infrared bands (1
-
2.4
μ
m; SWIR), and, uniquely among current civilian
orbital remote sensing instruments, acquires data in
'
five thermal infrared bands
(8
-
12
μ
m; 90 m/pixel; TIR). ASTER has an additional backward-viewing VNIR
band that allows the creation of digital elevation models (DEMs) for each granule.
