VOLCANO DEFORMATION MONITORING: INNOVATIONS AND SCALES, NOISE AND DATA

Local volcano eruptions may lead to cross border natural disasters, as last documented during the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption. Although such events often arise from a cascade of processes, volcano deformation data acquired before the eruption provided an important information source about the state of activity before eruption onset. In many cases, deformation measurements even successfully contributed to eruption forecast. Here I firstly discuss the lessons learned from such well monitored volcano activities, and outline the state of the art technical advancements of data gathering. Deformation observations may be on high spatial scale, or on high temporal scale, though only few methods combine high spatial and temporal scales. Many of the methods are expensive and complex, thus not pragmatic for most volcano observatories. Methods such as GPS, differential satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) and their time series (SBAS and PSI), levelling and innovative optical and microwave sensing from space and the ground are reviewed, and their potential for improved volcano monotoring and hazard assessment discussed.