LONG TERM ORBITAL OBSERVATIONS OF THE WORLD’S ACTIVE VOLCANOES WITH THE ASTER VOLCANO ARCHIVE: THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF A 100TB DATA SET

The physical and temporal systematics of the world's volcanic activity is a compelling productive arena for orbital remote sensing techniques, informing studies from basic volcanology to societal risk. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection radiometer (ASTER--a joint project of Japan and the United States; 1999 launch), with high spatial resolution (15, 30, 90m/pixel), multispectral character (0.52-0.86µm; 1.6-2.4µm; 8.1-11.6µm), and stereo-photogrammetric capability is ideal for this task. The Smithsonian Holocene catalog of approximately 1550 volcanoes has yielded a burgeoning inventory of ASTER day and night images and their derivatives (e.g., SO₂ maps, thermal anomaly maps, alteration zone maps). To house and access this unprecedented continually growing data archive in a way that allows the survey, extraction, and distribution of important information in a timely way, at JPL we created the ASTER Volcano Archive (AVA—http://ava.jpl.nasa.gov). Now the world’s largest web-accessible volcano image archive, it is one of several large data archives compiled by instruments (e.g., MODIS, MISR) on the NASA Terra orbital platform. The mechanics of organizing ~2 x 10⁵ ASTER volcano 60km x 60km “postage stamps” and the implementation of data mining techniques to extract relevant characteristics (e.g., thermal emission, topography, and geomorphic style) emerge as significant challenges. Significant opportunities exist, however, to modernize, fundamentally advance, and unify global volcano geomorphology (ala the classic C.A. Cotton 1942 monograph Volcanoes as Landscape Forms). Additionally, we hope to use quantitative observations of topography and volcanogenic geomorphology (e.g., style and products of deposition and erosion) to document eruption history, to predict future eruptive behavior and to address hazards (especially when combined with geophysical data). We will discuss the challenges and scientific opportunities that this unique global volcanology data set represent, addressing opportunities for prompt data distribution to the scientific community, to disaster responders, the general public, and to educators. This work was performed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory-California Institute of Technology, under contract to NASA.