Early warning for volcanic activity investigated from the 2008 Chaiten eruption based on long-term observation by microwave radiometer

Abstract

A microwave radiometer can observe thermal emission from the ground with less contamination by clouds than an infrared radiometer. However, because its spatial resolution is large, if an analysis method to compensate the disadvantage is developed, it should be more suitable to issue an alert for a volcanic activity in the early stage before an eruption. We have investigated an analysis method to detect local changes from the data of a satellite-borne microwave radiometer. We then applied this method for the Chaiten volcano in Chile, which was severely erupted in 2008. In this paper, the analysis results are presented.