GOALS
The Volcano Demonstrator aimed to expand beyond Latin America to illustrate the potential of operational space-based volcano monitoring. During 2019–2023, the project focused on volcanoes in Latin America, Africa, and southeast Asia, collectively home to about 735 volcanoes that have been active in the Holocene, and increased engagement with both data specialists and end users.
The Demonstrator project had five objectives:
1) fill gaps in global volcano monitoring
2) improve understanding of specific volcanoes and reduce risk from their eruptions
3) better understand the links between satellite data and magmatic processes
4) coordinate the constellation of international satellites to aid in crisis response
5) increase the capacity of volcano observatories to process and interpret satellite data.
RESULTS
A significant result of the Demonstrator project was to showcase the utility of high-resolution X-band SAR data for volcano monitoring and research. Those data were critical for recognizing rapid and localized surface motion at Merapi, Indonesia, that would not have been known from ground-based monitoring. At La Soufrière, St. Vincent, SAR amplitude data showed a rapid increase in dome growth two days prior to a major explosive eruption. During the Tajogaite eruption of Cumbre Vieja in La Palma, Canary Islands, high-resolution SAR data were used to map lava flows and aid with eruption response, capturing changes that would have been impossible to observe by any other means. Amplitude images also helped to study changes at Anak Krakatau (Indonesia), Hunga (Tonga), and Ambae (Vanuatu) volcanoes.
Operational use of SAR data was initiated or implemented in several countries, including Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Vanuatu, Indonesia, DRC, Ethiopia, and Comoros. Data and insights from the Demonstrator project contributed to the development of a classification scheme for all subaerial volcanoes that have been active in the Holocene, as well as older volcanoes with observed unrest, to guide data acquisition. The Centre for Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET) in the United Kingdom subsequently began using the categorization to set processing priorities for data collected over volcanoes by the Sentinel-1 satellite system. The project also aided research into past volcanic activity, including localized deformation at Agung in Indonesia, multi-sensor studies of trapdoor faulting at Sierra Negra in the Galápagos, and flank instability at Pacaya in Guatemala.