Radiative Heat Flux Estimation for Geothermal Exploration with Satellite Imagery: A Case Study at Kamojang Crater

Geothermal energy is one of the energies that can achieve the seventh goal of the Sustainable Development Goals, which ensures access to affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy. Supported by the geographical conditions of Indonesia, which is a volcanic arc country, the utilization of geothermal energy can be realized massively. This study aims to identify the location of the geothermal potential by calculating the land surface temperature and radiative heat flux from a geothermal system. We have raised a hypothesis that the heat from the geothermal system will consistently be higher than in surrounding environments. We used satellite images from The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Sentinel 2 MSI, and Terra MODIS MOD11A2. The study was conducted in Kamojang Crater, West Java, Indonesia, by extracting land surface temperature from satellite imagery using a mono-window algorithm. The algorithm applies the concept of simple radiation transfer, which directly relates the measurement to the emissivity and temperature of the study area, and a simulation model that describes the effect of the radiation regime on the measurement. The results indicated that the detected geothermal surface manifestations are located at a higher temperature than the background. Furthermore, the high-temperature anomaly is accompanied consistently by the high temperature of ground measurements. Then, radiative heat flux as part of the heat lost from the surface is applied as a variable to calculate the geothermal reservoir energy.