First Implementation of a Normalized Hotspot Index on Himawari-8 and GOES-R Data for the Active Volcanoes Monitoring: Results and Future Developments

Abstract

The Advanced Himawari Imager (AHI) and Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI), respectively aboard Himawari-8 and GOES-R geostationary satellites, are two important instruments for the near-real time monitoring of active volcanoes in the Eastern Asia/Western Pacific region and the Pacific Ring of Fire. In this work, we use for the first time AHI and ABI data, at 10 min temporal resolution, to assess the behavior of a Normalized Hotspot Index (NHI) in presence of active lava flows/lakes, at Krakatau (Indonesia), Ambrym (Vanuatu) and Kilauea (HI, USA) volcanoes. Results show that the index, which is used operationally to map hot targets through the Multispectral Instrument (MSI) and the Operational Land Imager (OLI), is sensitive to high-temperature features even when short-wave infrared (SWIR) data at 2 km spatial resolution are analyzed. On the other hand, thresholds should be tailored to those data to better discriminate thermal anomalies from the background in daylight conditions. In this context, the multi-temporal analysis of NHI may enable an efficient identification of high-temperature targets without using fixed thresholds. This approach could be exported to SWIR data from the Flexible Combined Imager (FCI) instrument aboard the next Meteosat Third Generation (MTG) satellites.