Robust satellite techniques for thermal volcanic activity monitoring, early warning and possible prediction of new eruptive events

Among the several satellite techniques developed for volcanic activity monitoring an original multi-temporal approach, named RST (Robust Satellite Techniques), has shown high performances in detecting hotspots, with a low false positive rate under different observational and atmospheric conditions. This approach has been successfully used to monitor volcanoes at different geographic location (e.g. Etna, Merapi, Rabaul, etc.) even thanks to its native exportability on whatever satellite platforms. In particular, the recent RST implementation on SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible & InfraRed Imager) sensor data has shown that even abrupt changes in thermal signals, related to new phase of volcano unrest, may be accurately and timely identified by satellite. In this paper, the potential in timely detecting sudden eruptive events will be further assessed, analyzing the Jebel Al Tair (Yemen) eruption of 30 September 2007. Moreover, the RST performances in recognizing possible thermal precursors of impending eruptions will also be discussed.