Monitoring El Hierro submarine volcano with low and high resolution satellite images

Abstract

Satellite remote sensing is providing a systematic, synoptic framework for advancing scientific knowledge of the Earth as a complex system of geophysical phenomena that, directly and through interacting processes, often lead to natural hazards. The recent eruption of a submarine volcano at the El Hierro Island has provided a unique and outstanding source of tracer that may allow us to study a variety of structures. The island off the Atlantic coast of North Africa—built mostly from a shield volcano—has been rocked by thousands of tremors and earthquakes since July 2011, and an underwater volcanic eruption 300 meters below sea level started on October 10, 2011. Thanks to this natural tracer release, low and high-resolution satellite images obtained from MODIS, MERIS and WorldView sensors have been processed to provide information on the concentration of a number of marine parameters: chlorophyll, phytoplankton, suspended matter, yellow substance, CDOM, particulate organic and inorganic, etc. This oceanographic remote sensing data has played, as well, a fundamental role during field campaigns guiding the Spanish government oceanographic vessel to the appropriate sampling areas. This paper illustrates the capabilities of satellite remote sensing systems to improve the understanding of submarine volcanic processes and hazards by providing more frequent observations and scientific information at a wide variety of wavelengths.