REMOTE-SENSING FOR ACTIVE VOLCANO MONITORING IN BARREN-ISLAND, INDIA

The Barren Island Volcano, situated in the Andaman Sea of the Bay of B engal, erupted recently (March, 1991) after a prolonged period of quie scence of about 188 years. This resumed activity coincides with simila r outbreaks in the Philippines and Japan, which are located in an iden tical tectonic environment. This study addresses (1) remote sensing te mporal monitoring of the volcanic activity, (2) detecting hot lava and measuring its pixel-integrated and sub-pixel temperatures, and (3) th e importance of SWIR bands for high temperature volcanic feature detec tion. Seven sets of TM data acquired continuously from 3 March 1991 to 8 July 1991 have been analyzed. ft is concluded that detectable pre-e ruption warming took place around 25 March 1991 and volcanic activity started on 1 April 1991. It is observed that high temperature features such as an erupting volcano can register emitted thermal radiance in SWIR bands. Calculation of pixel-integrated and sub-pixel temperatures related to volcanic vents has been made, using the dual-band method.