Product catalogue
Broad-scale Volcano Monitoring in Papua New Guinea using Satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar
The use of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to monitor volcano hazards by detecting ground deformation has been demonstrated in numerous cases around the world. This report presents an investigation of the feasibility of using InSAR as a broad scale volcano-monitoring tool in Papua New Guinea (PNG). This type of ongoing broad-scale monitoring would be a significant leap forward compared to the majority of past applications of InSAR for volcano monitoring, which have been sporadic and often conducted in hindsight. A major focus of this study was the development of open-source InSAR analysis software which makes it easier to implement in developing countries where resources may be limited.
The environmental conditions of PNG, such as steep topography, dense vegetation and the moist, turbulent atmosphere pose significant challenges to volcano monitoring using InSAR. On the other hand, the remoteness of many of the volcanoes and the limited geophysical resources currently employed to monitor them, makes a broad-scale InSAR monitoring system an attractive proposition.
The viability of InSAR as an ongoing tool for broad-scale volcano monitoring in PNG is constrained by the future availability of L-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellite imagery. The ALOS-2 mission should meet the data requirements of a broad-scale volcano monitoring programme. However, the present cost of ALOS data is prohibitive to ongoing monitoring, given the large volume of data required. The planned ALOS-2 mission will acquire SAR data with even higher temporal resolution, but this will be of little use to InSAR monitoring unless it is available at a cost conducive to regular access. At present, the greatest single barrier to a broad-scale InSAR monitoring system is the prohibitive cost of obtaining the required SAR imagery.
To improve the accessibility of InSAR processing software to those in developing countries, the InSAR processing workflow that has been developed in this study is open source, being based on the GMTSAR package. In addition the interface has been simplified and a greater level of automation has been implemented to reduce the training required to become operational. The system has been designed to deal with the large volume of data processing required in a broad-scale volcano monitoring operation by parallelizing the most computationally intensive parts of the workflow.
A case study of the Rabaul caldera demonstrates that L-band SAR interferometry can overcome many of the challenges of applying InSAR in PNG. However, continued development is required to enable time-series InSAR analysis. This would help to resolve the nonlinear nature of volcano deformation events and reduce the impact of spurious atmospheric delay signals. Commercial software is available to meet this requirement but the development of an open source alternative would be desirable to make the platform inclusive of developing countries.
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Publication)
- 2012-01-01T00:00:00
- Citation identifier
- Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/74141
- Cited responsible party
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Publisher Geoscience Australia
Canberra Author Romeyn, R.P.
1 Author Garthwaite, M.C.
2
- Name
-
Record
- Issue identification
-
2012/049
- Point of contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Owner Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Custodian Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Hall, L.S.
External Contact
- Topic category
-
- Geoscientific information
Extent
))
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Unknown
Resource format
- Title
-
Product data repository: Various Formats
- Website
-
Data Store directory containing the digital product files
Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes
- Keywords
-
-
GA Publication
-
Record
-
- Theme
-
-
volcanology
-
- Theme
-
-
geodesy
-
- Theme
-
-
remote sensing
-
- Theme
-
-
hazards
-
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
-
-
Earth Sciences
-
- Keywords
-
-
Published_External
-
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
-
CC-BY
- Edition
-
4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- License
Resource constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Distribution Information
- Distributor contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Distributor Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice
- OnLine resource
-
Download the Record (pdf)
Download the Record (pdf)
- Distribution format
-
-
pdf
-
Resource lineage
- Statement
-
Unknown
- Hierarchy level
- Non geographic dataset
- Other
-
GA Publication
- Description
-
Source data not available.
Metadata constraints
- Title
-
Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem
- Edition date
- 2018-11-01T00:00:00
- Classification
- Unclassified
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/c1638d4b-8332-129e-e044-00144fdd4fa6
- Title
-
GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
- Contact
-
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details Point of contact Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)
Voice Point of contact Hall, L.S.
External Contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Document
- Name
-
GA Record
Alternative metadata reference
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with
uuid
- Citation identifier
- eCatId/74141
- Date info (Revision)
- 2018-04-20T06:14:19
- Date info (Creation)
- 2012-06-01T00:00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
-
AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-1:2014
Metadata standard
- Title
-
ISO 19115-3
- Title
-
Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014
- Edition
-
Version 2.0, September 2018
- Citation identifier
- https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551