INVESTIGATION OF BAIKDU-SAN VOLCANO WITH SPACE-BORNE SAR SYSTEM

Baikdu-san was a very active volcano during the Cenozoic era and is believed to be formed in late Cenozoic era. Recently it was also reported that there was a major eruption in or around 1002 A.D. and there are evidences which indicate that it is still an active volcano and a potential volcanic hazard. Remote sensing techniques have been widely used to monitor various natural hazards, including volcanic hazards. However, during an active volcanic eruption, volcanic ash can basically cover the sky and often blocks the solar radiation preventing any use of optical sensors. Synthetic aperture radar(SAR) is an ideal tool to monitor the volcanic activities and lava flows, because the wavelength of the microwave signal is considerably longer that the average volcanic ash particle size. In this study we have utilized several sets of SAR data to evaluate the utility of the space-borne SAR system. The data sets include JERS-1(L-band) SAR, and RADARSAT(C-band) data which included both standard mode and the ScanSAR mode data sets. We also utilized several sets of auxiliary data such as local geological maps and JERS-1 OPS data. The routine preprocessing and image processing steps were applied to these data sets before any attempts of classifying and mapping surface geological features. Although we computed sigma nought ($\sigma$$^{0}$) values far the standard mode RADARSAT data, the utility of sigma nought image was minimal in this study. Application of various types of classification algorithms to identify and map several stages of volcanic flows was not very successful. Although this research is still in progress, the following preliminary conclusions could be made: (1) sigma nought (RADARSAT standard mode data) and DN (JERS-1 SAR and RADARSAT ScanSAR data) have limited usefulness for distinguishing early basalt lava flows from late trachyte flows or later trachyte flows from the old basement granitic rocks around Baikdu-san volcano, (2) surface geological structure features such as several faults and volcanic lava flow channels can easily be identified and mapped, and (3) routine application of unsupervised classification methods cannot be used for mapping any types of surface lava flow patterns.