Theme Leaders
Partners and Customers
Our goal is to use global satellite measurements of the Earth's surface and volcanic gas emissions to advance our knowledge of the processes responsible for earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanoes and to develop better warning systems.
We are combining EO data with surface observations to improve our understanding of the processes underlying earthquakes and volcanoes in order to assess and mitigate the related hazards. Quantifying such hazards and identifying the processes at work requires a global approach to which EO is ideally suited. EO can illustrate the slow build up of crustal strain that will eventually be released as an earthquake, or show past earthquake activity. This information enables us to build a regional picture of faulting and crustal deformation for seismic hazard assessment and mitigation. EO data can be used to develop and test models of volcanic processes, and using it to keep a global watch on volcanic activity is a realisable goal.
For more details and information, visit the Theme 6 website
The study of volcanism and volcanic gas emissions contribute to the
research on Atmospheric Composition and also to Climate. We also need to
make use of the water vapour modelling expertise of our colleagues
working on Hazardous Weather.
Our research priorities are:
- To use specialist radar measurements with seismology to provide detailed descriptions of activity at depth on faults in earthquakes, and to construct regional models for seismic hazard assessment and mitigation
- To use EO measurements of surface deformation, lava, tephra thermal radiation and gas and particle emissions in order to monitor volcanic activity, to understand the mechanisms and to assess the hazards posed by individual volcanoes.
- To utilise the enormous potential of the global network of GPS (Global Positioning System) instruments to provide an alternative source of seismological information and to incorporate this into tsunami warning systems
- To enhance EO techniques by removing environmental effects and orbital uncertainties that currently restrict the range of surface deformation that can be determined using specialist radar products
Our current work includes:
- InSAR studies of 4 recent normal faulting earthquakes in Tibet and the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
- Derivation of the detailed velocity field for western Anatolia from combined CGPS and survey GPS data and analysis of deformation models.
- Development of techniques to mitigate atmospheric errors in SAR interferograms by retrieving water vapour fields using the Unified Model.
- Retrieval algorithm for volcanic plume properties using SEVIRI measurements; ash plume altitude from stereo imagery (SEVIRI-MSG/Meteosat5).
- Development of SO2 retrieval algorithms for IASI/GOME.
