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Applications of quantitative thermal infrared hyperspectral imaging (8–14 μm): measuring volcanic SO2 mass flux and determining plume transport velocity using a single sensor

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Abstract

Remote measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO2) path-concentration and emission rate (mass flux), released by passive volcanic degassing, are a key diagnostic of volcanic behavior. SO2 gas concentrations are also important for public health. Despite the significance of measuring SO2 mass flux at active volcanoes, an accurate method is still very difficult to obtain due largely to uncertainties of plume transport velocities and radiative transfer calculations. Here, we present a new infrared imaging method for deriving SO2 flux at active volcanoes with less than 20% plume transport velocity and radiative transfer uncertainties. The thermal hyperspectral imager (THI) was used for this study. THI is an uncooled remote sensing long-wave thermal infrared (TIR) imaging hyperspectral sensor that can obtain ~ 50 wavelength samples between 8 and 14 μm. Measurements of SO2 at the summit of Kīlauea volcano, collected using THI, are presented, where we obtained (for the periods of July 24–26, 2017, and February 5–6, 2018) a SO2 flux raging between 0 and 20 kg/s with occasional peaks higher than 40 kg/s. The spatial distribution of SO2 path-concentrations was obtained from the THI images by processing them using a newly developed SO2 retrieval algorithm, the SO2 amenable lookup table algorithm (SO2-ALTA). The sampling rate (30 Hz) of the microbolometer camera within THI means raw frames can be used for wind velocity derivation. Volcanic plume motion can be thus inferred by tracking plume features in sequential frames using spatial correlation techniques and knowing the camera angular orientation. Volcanic SO2 flux was estimated from the spatial distribution of SO2 and wind velocity. We evaluated temporal trends of the SO2 flux during the day and the night at the summit of Kīlauea volcano under both clear sky weather with northeasterly trade winds and cloudy sky conditions with low variable wind. These tests showed that the camera and techniques described in this paper provide an effective tool for monitoring SO2 fluxes remotely with less than 20% plume transport velocity and radiative transfer uncertainties and under a variety of background conditions (clear and cloudy sky, cold and hot backgrounds).

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Acknowledgments

This work was performed by HIGP under subcontract to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (subcontract number no. 1602222). We thank the United States Department of Interior National Parks Service for authorizing the collection of the field data reported in this paper (Permit number HAVO-2015-SCI-0050). We thank Dr. Matthew Patrick (Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey), for his great help with the field data collection and his insightful suggestions regarding comparing the time series of SO2 flux THI measurements with Real-time Seismic Amplitude Measurement (RSAM) from the Halemaʻumaʻu lava lake. We also thank the reviewers of this manuscript: Dr. Fred Prata (Norwegian Institute for Air Research - NILU and Nicarnica Aviation) and Dr. Christoph Kern (Volcano Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey), the Bulletin of Volcanology Associate Editor Dr. Patrick Allard (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, IPGP), and the Bulletin of Volcanology Executive Editor Dr. Andy Harris (Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, IPGP) for their most valuable comments on the manuscript. Their feedback led us to an improvement of the work.

Funding

Additional funding was provided by NASA’s Earth Science Technology Office (Instrument Incubator Program, NNX14AE61G).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hawai’i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Andrea Gabrieli, Robert Wright, John N. Porter, Paul G. Lucey & Casey Honnibal

  2. Department of Geology and Geophysics, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai’i, Mānoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA

    Casey Honnibal

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  1. Andrea Gabrieli
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  2. Robert Wright
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  3. John N. Porter
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Correspondence to Andrea Gabrieli.

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Editorial responsibility: P. Allard

This is HIGP publication number 2384 and SOEST publication number 10731.

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Gabrieli, A., Wright, R., Porter, J.N. et al. Applications of quantitative thermal infrared hyperspectral imaging (8–14 μm): measuring volcanic SO2 mass flux and determining plume transport velocity using a single sensor. Bull Volcanol 81, 47 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-019-1305-x

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