Quantitative estimation of erupted volcanic ash by using satellite image

Quantitative estimation of erupted volcanic materials is extremely important to recognize the magnitude of eruption and to predict the effect on the global and local environments. A field geological technique, which needs much more time, is applied to estimate erupted materials such as volcanic ash. Several ground-based remote sensing methods were also presented to estimate discharge rates of volcanic gasses (mainly H/sub 2/O and SO/sub 2/). However, estimation methods of volcanic materials by using satellite image have not been presented so much. The authors think that the method by using satellite images is very effective and safe. They propose a new remote sensing technique to estimate the erupted volcanic ash by using satellite image based on the physical model of motion of volcanic ash and they applied it to the 1995 eruption of Kuju volcano, central Kyushu, Japan. Their estimation shows a reasonable coincidence with the value obtained by a field geological technique.