Micro-Millimeter and Thermal-Infrared Radiometric Data for Volcanic Explosive Activity: the Manam Case Study

The study of volcanic clouds by thermal-infrared satellite radiometry represents the classic approach because of the presence of wavelengths sensitive to small volcanic particles. However, when there is an abundance of bigger particles, the thermal-infrared signal can saturate, and this is common in the proximity of the volcanic vent. For this reason, the integration of micro and millimeter waves radiometric observations can be beneficial. In this work we couple these two spectral measurements to first detect, and then estimate the top volcanic cloud height and the instantaneous total mass during an explosive eruption. As a case study, we consider the eruption of the Manam volcano occurred on 31 July 2015 in Papua New Guinea.