Monitoring of the 2018 Kilauea's eruption in the lower East Rift Zone using multi-temporal PALSAR-2 imagery

A large eruption occurred in Kilauea volcano's East Rift Zone (ERZ) on the island of Hawaii, U.S.A., from May 3 to September 4, 2018. Twenty-four fissures erupted lava near Leilani Estates and destroyed more than 700 houses. In this study, four pre-event and six co-event ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 images acquired from two neighboring ascending paths were applied to monitor the surface deformation and the expansion of lava flows on the ERZ. The deformation was estimated by the differential interferometric analysis. During the eruption, both Halema'uma'u Crater and Pu'u `O'o Crater went away from the PALSAR-2 sensor, whereas the Leilani Estates moved close to the sensor direction. The obtained movements were verified by comparing with GPS records. The lava flows from the Leilani Estates to the Pacific Ocean were detected by low backscattering in the intensity images. Finally, multi-temporal maps of the lava flows were created and compared with the maps published by U. S. Geological Survey.