MAPPING AREAS IMPACTED BY VOLCANIC FLOWS DURING AN ERUPTION USING SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR AND OPTICAL IMAGERY

Abstract

During volcanic disasters, the remoteness of the terrains combined with potentially incapacitated lifelines (e.g., disturbed transportation network) prevent ground-based surveys for timely assessment of damage extents. To that effect, we worked to combine satellite optical and Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data to rapidly delineate the areas impacted by fast-moving volcanic flows during an eruption (e.g., Pyroclastic Density Currents (PDCs), lahars), which can in turn be used to target and organize the response efforts. We used the 2015 eruptions of Volcán de Colima (Mexico) and Volcán Calbuco (Chile) volcanoes to calibrate detection thresholds of different types of volcanic flows, from optical and SAR imagery. Optical imagery is used to calculate temporal changes of Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) associated with the presence of erupted materials on the surface. SAR amplitude images are used to detect changes in surface roughness (sigma0) attributed to the emplacement of new volcanic flows. Classification of the respective NDVI and SAR amplitude signal changes for different types of volcanic flows is done using very-high-resolution imagery and ground-based data obtained during field work. Linear rescaling of minimal and maximal threshold signals is used to create probability maps of volcanic flow deposits extent, and then combined into a joint probability map to maximize the accuracy of the deposit extents. We tested our ability to generate volcanic flow extent maps during the April 2021 eruption of Soufrière St Vincent, using this detection method and the calibrated threshold values for PDCs and lahars.