Abstract
Abstract. We examine a new imaging method for the remote sensing of volcanic gases, which relies on the regularly spaced narrow-band absorption structures in the UV–VIS of many molecules. A Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI) is used to compare the scattered sunlight radiance at wavelengths corresponding to absorption bands with the radiance at wavelengths in between the bands, thereby identifying and quantifying the gas. In this first theoretical study, we present sample calculations for the detection of sulfur dioxide (SO2). Optimum values for the FPI setup parameters are proposed. Furthermore, the performance of the FPI method is compared to SO2 cameras. We show that camera systems using an FPI are far less influenced by changes in atmospheric radiative transfer (e.g., due to aerosol) and have a great potential as a future technique for examining emissions of SO2 (or other gases) from volcanic sources and other point sources.
Highlights
SO2 emission rates are routinely measured as a monitoring parameter at many volcanoes (Galle et al, 2010)
Volcanic SO2 can be measured by remote sensing techniques, and it often serves as a dilution tracer when studying the chemistry of more reactive gases emitted by volcanoes
We proposed a remote sensing method to measure volcanic gas emissions using their regular absorption features in the UV wavelength region
Summary
SO2 emission rates are routinely measured as a monitoring parameter at many volcanoes (Galle et al, 2010). Besides COrrelation SPECtroscopy (COSPEC, Moffat and Millan, 1971), differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS, Platt and Stutz, 2008) has become an increasingly more common technique for examining volcanic SO2 emissions. The SO2 camera (Mori and Burton, 2006; Bluth et al, 2007; Kern et al, 2010b; Lübcke et al, 2013) as a nondispersive device makes use of simplified spectroscopic identification to derive two-dimensional SO2 column density distributions with a significantly higher temporal resolution (on the order of 1 s per image) than scanning or imaging DOAS instruments. As mentioned already in Kern et al (2010b), the regularly spaced narrow-band absorption structure of SO2 allows the measurement of SO2 by using a Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI). In contrast to previous studies, this study focuses on UV detection and imaging of volcanic gas emissions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
