SAR Interferometry applications on active volcanoes: state of the art and perspectives for volcano monitoring

In this paper the application of the Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometr y (INSAR) on volcanology is analysed. Since it is not a real novelty among the different applications of INSAR in Earth Observation activities, at the beginning of this paper we analyse the state of the art of the researches in this field. During the discussion, the point of view of volcanologists i s favoured because it is considered that the first applications were often badly aimed. Consequently, the initial INSAR performances in volcanology we re overrated with respect to the real capabilities of this technique. This fact lead to discover some unexpected limitations in INSAR usage in Volcano monitoring, but, at the same time, spurred on scientists to overcome these drawbacks. The results achieved recently allow to better apply SAR to volc anology; in the paper a possible operative work-plan aimed at introducing I NSAR in the volcano monitoring system is presented.