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Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments

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

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 February 2024) | Viewed by 7492

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Enrica Marotta

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Guest Editor

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservatorio Vesuviano, 80124 Napoli, Italy
Interests: thermal monitoring; remote sensing; physical volcanology; stratigraphy; structural geology; geomorphology and risk perception
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Annamaria Vicari

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Guest Editor

Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Sezione Irpinia—C. da Ciavolone, 83035 Grottaminarda, AV, Italy
Interests: numerical modeling; remote sensing; RING network

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Areas characterized by volcanic activity, such as active and quiescent volcanoes, fumarolic or geothermal fields, and hydrothermal systems, constantly change over time. Such changes may span over several orders of magnitude both in size and in time, ranging from small and slow changes in the distribution of active areas (as is the case, for example, for geothermal springs) to abrupt and catastrophic explosions of large calderas or central volcanoes, or the emission of lavas from effusive volcanoes. Volcanoes are often subject to the emission of hot fluids and gas before or after eruptions, or as a characteristic of their normal, mild activity.

Depending on the scale of expected or observed phenomena of a given active volcanic or geothermal area, many varied observations of their evolution may be useful in understanding any possible changes in their background state of activity or sudden unexpected extreme manifestations, which are difficult to record on site. Sometimes, such areas may actually be unreachable for direct human surveys due to remoteness from civilization or hazardousness for researchers.

The proposed Special Issue will focus on techniques, methods, datasets, and results arising from remote sensing, with acquisition ranging from terrestrial, UAV, or airborne sensors to satellite data. Examples of potential contributions include—but are not limited to—the following:

Mapping of thermal anomalies;
Aerophotogrammetric reconstructions and volumes assessments;
Structural mapping or 3D reconstruction of morphology;
Gas column mapping;
Paroxysmal explosions and pressure blasts observations;
Lava flow fields evolution;
Geothermal and geochemical monitoring of active areas.

Dr. Enrica Marotta
Dr. Annamaria Vicari
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

UAS
airborne
satellite
volcanic activity
geothermal fields

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

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22 pages, 5469 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Geothermal Exploration in the Burwash Landing Region, Canada, Using Three-Dimensional Inversion of Passive Electromagnetic Data

by Victoria Tschirhart, Maurice Colpron, James Craven, Fateme Hormozzade Ghalati, Randy J. Enkin and Stephen E. Grasby

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(23), 5963; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14235963 - 25 Nov 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1952

Abstract

Sustainable development of Canada’s North requires an increased focus on renewable, zero-emission energy sources. Burwash Landing in Yukon is prospective for geothermal energy based on a high geothermal gradient, local occurrence of warm groundwater and proximity to the active, crustal-scale Denali fault. Uncertainties about the potential geothermal system include the nature and geometry of fluid pathways, and heat sources required to drive a hydrothermal system. In this study, we inverted three passive electromagnetic datasets—321 extremely low frequency electromagnetic, 33 audiomagnetotelluric and 51 magnetotelluric stations—to map the subsurface electrical structure to 8 km depth. Our new model reveals vertical conductive structures associated with the two main faults, Denali and Bock’s Creek, which we interpret to represent fluid-deposited graphite and hydrothermal alteration, respectively. Our model supports an interpreted releasing bend on the main Denali fault strand. This is associated with the deepest conductivity anomaly along the fault and potential for deeper penetration of fluids. Enigmatic conductive bodies from 1 to > 6 km depth are associated with intermediate to mafic intrusions. Fluids released from these bodies may advect heat and provide a possible heat source to mobilize hot fluids and sustain a geothermal system in the region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments)

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Other

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15 pages, 14866 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Estimation of the Uncertainties Introduced in Thermal Map Mosaic: A Case of Study with PIX4D Mapper Software

by Teresa Caputo, Eliana Bellucci Sessa, Enrica Marotta, Antonio Caputo, Pasquale Belviso, Gala Avvisati, Rosario Peluso and Antonio Carandente

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(18), 4385; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15184385 - 06 Sep 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 827

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyse problems related to thermal mapping obtained from thermal data acquired from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) equipped with thermal cameras. We focused on an accurate analysis of uncertainties introduced by the PIX4D Mapper software version 4.4.12 used to obtain the surface temperature maps of thermal images acquired using the UAS. To achieve this aim, we used artificial thermal references during the surveys, as well as natural hot targets, i.e., thermal anomalies in the Pisciarelli hydrothermal system in Campi Flegrei caldera (CFc). Artificial thermal targets, expressly created and designed for this goal, are a prototype here called “developed thermal target” (DTT) created by the drone laboratory at Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia—Osservatorio Vesuviano (INGV-OV). We show the results obtained through three surveys, and during the last two, thermal targets were positioned on land at different flight heights of the UAS. Different heights were also necessary to test the spatial resolution of the DTT with the used thermal camera as well as possible temperature differences between the raw images acquired via UAS with the thermal mapping obtained from the PIX4D Mapper software. In this work, we estimate the uncertainty that may be introduced by the mosaic procedure, and furthermore we find an attenuation of the measured temperatures introduced by the different distances between the thermal anomaly and sensor. These results appear to be of great importance for the subsequent calibration phase of the thermal maps, especially in cases where these methodologies are applied for the purposes of monitoring volcanic/geothermal areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments)

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13 pages, 5033 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

MultiGAS Detection from Airborne Platforms on Italian Volcanic and Geothermal Areas

by Malvina Silvestri, Jorge Andres Diaz, Federico Rabuffi, Vito Romaniello, Massimo Musacchio, Ernesto Corrales, James Fox, Enrica Marotta, Pasquale Belviso, Rosario Avino, Gala Avvisati and Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(9), 2390; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15092390 - 03 May 2023

Viewed by 1170

Abstract

The measurement of volcanic gases, such as CO₂ and SO₂, emitted from summit craters and fumaroles is crucial to monitor volcanic activity, providing estimations of gases fluxes, and geochemical information that helps to assess the status and the risk level of an active volcano. During high degassing events, the measurement of volcanic emissions is a dangerous task that cannot be performed using hand portable or backpack carried gas analysis systems. Measurements of gases plumes could be safety achieved by using instruments mounted on UAS (Unmanned Aerial System). In this work, we present the measurements of CO₂, SO₂, and H₂S gases collected with a miniaturized MultiGAS instrument during 2021 and 2022 field campaigns. They took place at several thermally active areas in Italy: Pisciarelli (Naples, Italy), Stromboli volcano (Messina, Italy), and Parco Naturalistico delle Biancane (Grosseto, Italy). Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments)

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13 pages, 7438 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

A Statistical Approach to Satellite Time Series Analysis to Detect Changes in Thermal Activities: The Vulcano Island 2021 Crisis

by Federico Rabuffi, Malvina Silvestri, Massimo Musacchio, Vito Romaniello and Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(16), 3933; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14163933 - 13 Aug 2022

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1345

Abstract

Vulcano belongs to the seven volcanic islands forming the Aeolian archipelago (Italy) and has the privilege to define an eruptive style as “Vulcanian”. It has to be considered as an active volcano as its most recent activity demonstrated. Starting by late spring 2021, the thermal state of the Vulcano summit area changed and the gas emission increased. During the summer and, in particular, starting from September, geophysical and geochemical signals, precisely those linked to the activity of the hydrothermal system that feeds the fumaroles of the Fossa crater, varied. The temperature of the gases emitted by the fumaroles on the crater rim has increased and the composition of the gases has showed an increase in CO₂ and SO₂ (carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide) concentration. For such reasons, the authors decided to follow this event by analyzing the remotely sensed available data suitable for detecting changes in thermal state. By processing the TIRS (Landsat 8) and ASTER time series, two long-term surface temperature logs were obtained and, therefore, by adopting a statistical approach, an analysis in both space and time domains has emphasized a thermal signature since mid-September 2021. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments)

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14 pages, 5288 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Clustering of Handheld Thermal Camera Images in Volcanic Areas and Temperature Statistics

by Francesca Cirillo, Gala Avvisati, Pasquale Belviso, Enrica Marotta, Rosario Peluso and Romano Antonio Pescione

Remote Sens. 2022, 14(15), 3789; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14153789 - 06 Aug 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1404

Abstract

Thermal camera use is becoming ever more widespread in volcanic and environmental research and monitoring activities. Depending on the scope of an investigation and on the type of thermal camera used, different software for thermal infrared (IR) images analysis is employed. The Osservatorio Vesuviano Sezione in Napoli of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV-OV) processes the images acquired during thermal monitoring activities acquired in the Neapolitan areas (Vesuvio, Ischia and Campi Flegrei) with different FLIR software that returns for each image, or for each selected area within the image, a series of parameters (maximum temperature, average temperature, standard deviation, etc.). An operator selects the area of interest and later “manually” inserts the relevant parameters in Excel sheets to generate graphs. Such a tedious, time- and resource-consuming procedure gave reason to implement a software able to automatically analyze sets of thermal images taken with a handheld thermal camera without any manual action. This paper describes the method and the software implemented to “automate” and refine the extrapolation process and the analysis of the relevant information. The employed method clusters thermal images by applying K-MEANS and DBSCAN techniques. After clustering a series of images, the software displays the necessary statistics to highlight possible fluctuations in temperature values. The software, “StaTistical Analysis clusteRed ThErmal Data” (STARTED), is already available. Although it has been developed mostly to support monitoring of the volcanoes in Campania, it is quite versatile and can be used for any activity that implies thermal data analysis. In this paper, we describe the workflow and the dataset used to develop the software, as well as the first result obtained from it. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing of Geothermal and Volcanic Environments)

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