Radiant Power Patterns Inferred from Remote Sensing Using a Cloud Computing Platform, during the 2021 Fagradalsfjall Eruption, Iceland

Abstract

The effusive eruption at Mt. Fagradalsfjall began on 19 March 2021 and it ended a period of about 800 years of volcano dormancy on the Reykjanes Peninsula. To monitor and evaluate power output of the eruption, we compiled in total 254 freely available satellite images from Terra MODIS and Landsat 8 OLI-TIRS via the Google Earth Engine platform over a six-month period. This cloud computing platform offers unique opportunities for remote sensing data collection, processing, analysis, and visualizations at a regional scale with direct access to a multi-petabyte analysis-ready data catalogue. The average radiant power from the lava during this time was 437 MW, with a maximum flux of 3253 MW. The intensity thermal power output of the 2021 Fagradalsfjall (3253 MW) is in marked contrast to radiant power observed at the 2014–2015 Holuhraun Iceland (11956 MW) where, while both eruptions also hosted active lava pools and channel, Holuhraun exhibited a much greater variability in radiant power over the same period of time. We performed Spearman correlation coefficient (SCC). Our results show a positive correlation (0.64) with radiative power from the MODVOLC system, which suggests that both results follow the same general trend. The results provide a unique temporal data set of heat flux, hosted, and processed by a cloud computing platform. This enabled the rapid assessment of eruption evolution via a cloud computing platform which can collect and process time series data within minutes.