Mt. Etna volcanic plume from ASTER and HYPERION data by ASI-SRV modules

Volcanic plumes represent a visible indicator of volcanic activity. They vary in space and time, strongly influenced by the quiescent or eruptive status of the volcano. Different volcanic activities, such as volcanic clouds and plumes, inject into the atmosphere gases and aerosol at different latitudes, altitudes and with different times of residence. Released by the magma, plumes are a turbulent mixture of gases, solid particles and liquid droplets, emitted at high temperature continuously from summit craters, fumarolic fields or during eruptive episodes. Mt. Etna, in Sicily (Italy), is one of the worlds most frequent emitters of volcanic plumes. It show a permanent degassing plumes periodically interrupted by copious tephra emission and fallout that damage the inhabited and cultivated areas and created serious hazards to air traffic, as volcanic clouds can spread thousand of km in the central Mediterranean area. Recurrent closures of the Catania International airport have often been necessary, causing great losses to the local economy (Andronico et al 2009). For these reasons Mt. Etna is continually monitored and recent a new approach has been adapted integrating ground network data with the analysis of space data. In order to extract geophysical parameters related to volcano status software modules has been developed divided by early warning phase, crisis phase and post- crisis phase. Modules using already developed remote sensing techniques in the VIS and IR wavelength range. Here we present two modules for the Mt. Etna volcanic plume analysis using ASTER on TERRA and HYPERION on EO-1 data. This study is carried out within the SRV project, funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI).