On June 02, 2026, Daniel Voellner will present his Innolab results on ” Temporal Analysis of Lava Dome Morphology and Crevasse Development at Great Sitkin Volcano” at 12:00 in seminar room 3, John-Skilton-Str. 4a. title of presentation:
From the abstract: Volcanic monitoring is essential for understanding eruptive processes and assessing volcanic hazards, yet continuous observations are often limited by remote locations, harsh environmental conditions, and persistent cloud cover. This Innolab addresses these challenges by investigating lava dome growth and crevasse dynamics at Great Sitkin Volcano using multi-temporal TerraSAR-X (TSX) and TanDEM-X (TDX) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Single Look Slant Range Complex (SSC) imagery. The project focuses on the analysis of the temporal evolution of the lava dome and its influence on the nearby glacier. The processing was done via the ESA Snappy Python interface and includes radiometric calibration, pairwise co-registration, speckle filtering, ellipsoid correction, and the generation of logarithmic ratio images and texture measures to enhance temporal surface changes. Based on the processed SAR products, lava dome extents and glacier crevasses are delineated for each acquisition scene using thresholding, morphological operations, and shape analysis techniques. Detected crevasse outlines are further skeletonized to estimate crevasse widths and assess their temporal evolution, while limited cloud-free optical satellite imagery serves as supplementary visual reference data. The resulting time-resolved datasets enable the analysis of spatio-temporal interactions between volcanic and glacial processes throughout the eruptive period. The study demonstrates the potential of high-resolution SAR time series and semi-automated workflows for long-term volcano monitoring in remote and mostly cloud-covered environments.
1st supervisor: Dr. Simon Plank
From the abstract: Volcanic monitoring is essential for understanding eruptive processes and assessing volcanic hazards, yet continuous observations are often limited by remote locations, harsh environmental conditions, and persistent cloud cover. This Innolab addresses these challenges by investigating lava dome growth and crevasse dynamics at Great Sitkin Volcano using multi-temporal TerraSAR-X (TSX) and TanDEM-X (TDX) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) Single Look Slant Range Complex (SSC) imagery. The project focuses on the analysis of the temporal evolution of the lava dome and its influence on the nearby glacier. The processing was done via the ESA Snappy Python interface and includes radiometric calibration, pairwise co-registration, speckle filtering, ellipsoid correction, and the generation of logarithmic ratio images and texture measures to enhance temporal surface changes. Based on the processed SAR products, lava dome extents and glacier crevasses are delineated for each acquisition scene using thresholding, morphological operations, and shape analysis techniques. Detected crevasse outlines are further skeletonized to estimate crevasse widths and assess their temporal evolution, while limited cloud-free optical satellite imagery serves as supplementary visual reference data. The resulting time-resolved datasets enable the analysis of spatio-temporal interactions between volcanic and glacial processes throughout the eruptive period. The study demonstrates the potential of high-resolution SAR time series and semi-automated workflows for long-term volcano monitoring in remote and mostly cloud-covered environments.
1st supervisor: Dr. Simon Plank
