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Automatic detection of volcanic thermal features using satellite observations
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  • Claudia Corradino,
  • Michael Ramsey,
  • Tyler Leggett,
  • Ciro Del Negro
Claudia Corradino
INGV - National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Michael Ramsey
University of Pittsburgh
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Tyler Leggett
University of Pittsburgh
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Ciro Del Negro
INGV - National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology
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Abstract

Satellite observations are widely used to investigate, monitor, and forecast volcanic activity. Spaceborne thermal infrared (TIR) measurements of high-temperature volcanic features improve our understanding of the underlying processes and our ability to identify reactivation of activity, forecast eruptions, and assess hazards. In particular, thermal changes, indicative of subtle pre-eruptive volcanic thermal activity, have been observed. Over the last several decades, different approaches have been explored to detect and estimate the temperature above background of these thermal anomalies. The most common approach relies on a spatial statistical analysis based on a scene by scene choice of the background temperature region. Satisfactory results have also been shown by using time series anomaly detection algorithms based on statistical profiling approach. Artificial intelligence (AI) is growing sharply in different remote sensing fields because of its capability to automatically learn patterns from the data. Here, we develop an AI approach to automatically detect volcanic thermal features by using spatiotemporal information from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), LANDSAT-8 Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) and MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data acquired over several decades. Our goal is to exploit AI techniques using a combination of high temporal and high spatial resolution satellite data to improve thermal volcanic monitoring and detect very low-level anomalies caused by pre-eruptive activity. We use both low-spatial, high-temporal resolution MODIS data to detect hotter thermal features at short time scales; as well as high-spatial low-temporal resolution ASTER TIR and TIRS data to detect more subtle thermal changes otherwise missed by MODIS. Our analysis is conducted in Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud computing platform with fast access and processing of satellite data. The comparison with a new statistical algorithm is documented in a companion abstract in this session.