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Vatnajokull, Iceland October 1996
At the end of September 1996, a new volcanic fissure began forming beneath the Vatnajokull glacier in southeast Iceland, melting millions of cubic metres of ice, but trapping most of the meltwater beneath the glacier. On the 2 October, the fissure of the volcano broke through the surface and began to melt the ice on the surface of the glacier. By 6 October, the eruption had ceased, but the sediment-laden meltwaters remained trapped beneath the ice until later in the month, when they burst out to the south, causing devastating floods in the Skeidarasandur region before pouring into the Atlantic Ocean.The images have been acquired from the European Space Agency's ERS-2 satellite before and after the eruption from a volcanic fissure underneath Vatnajokull. The first image acquired on 1 September 1996 shows the area of interest before the event. The second image, acquired on 6 October, represents the same area after the eruption and during the ice melting caused by the heat. These two scenes have been superimposed to a multitemporal image with the following RGB colour combination:
Red: 1 September 1996
Green: 1st principal component (artificial layer extracted from the multitemporal image)
Blue: 6 October 1996.
The dominating blue tones on the multitemporal image
indicate a stronger backscattering surface on 6 October
Provided by
This technique allows the enhancement of the changes between the two ERS-2 passes. The dominating blue tones on the multitemporal image, all over the area of Vatnajokull, indicate a stronger backscattering surface on 6 October, caused by the change of the ice conditions between the acquisition dates. A check performed on ERS quick looks acquired during the last four years confirms that it is the low temperature in October that causes the backscatter difference (see below image acquired on October 1995). The reddish zones, visible at the lower right corner of the image, are due to melting water on the top of the ice causing a lower backscatter signal during the acquisition of 6 October.
Further details can be found at Earthnet Online at http://earth.esa.int/.
Keywords: ESA European Space Agency - Agence spatiale europeenne, observation de la terre, earth observation, satellite remote sensing, teledetection, geophysique, altimetrie, radar, chimique atmospherique, geophysics, altimetry, radar, atmospheric chemistry