Remote Sensing for Scientific Research in Earth Sciences in the

Russian Far East

Evgeny Gordeev

, Vera Naumova

and Sergey Diakov

Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FEB RAS, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, Russia

Far East Geological Institute FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia

Institute of Automation and Control Processes FEB RAS, Vladivostok, Russia

gordeev@kscnet.ru,naumova@fegi.ru

Keywords: Earth science, satellite data, remote sensing.

Abstract: Long-term researches conducted by scientists from the institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences have

resulted in a large volume of data in Earth Sciences. The research data are systematized at the institutes.

Archives, databases, Geo Information Systems, Data Retrieval Systems, and Digital Libraries have been

establishing. Due to new methods for data collection, the amount of data increases constantly, the data

acquisition becomes more efficient, and the change-over to whole new digital technologies of data

collection, processing, distribution and using is almost complete. The Earth remote sensing space systems,

systems of surface and aerial laser scanning, other digital and electrical geodetic equipment, digital areal

cameras are used to get the initial data. The new digital and electronic environment for data in Earth

Sciences makes it possible to use modern informational technologies.

Satellite data are widely used in geological and geophysical investigations. In order to encourage

scientists in the Russian Far East to use satellite images, a system that provides data derived from satellite

imagery for geological and geophysical investigations is being developed. This system is supposed to

provide data from satellite imagery to users, IR-channels from AVHRR and MODIS radiometers, and

measurements of visible channels from AQUA and TERRA, as well as LANDSAT.

1 INTRODUCTION

From time immemorial the Russian Far East has

been attracting geologists and geophysicists due to

its location in the global system of fold structures of

the Pacific ore-tectonic belt and at the same time as

the area of transition from the largest continent to

the greatest ocean. It seemed that here exactly a

scientist could find the solution for a lot of

contentious issues in endogenic geology and reveal

general regularities in order to increase the amount

of tasks to be solved by developing of large

theoretical problems. Indeed, travelling eastwards

from the inner regions of the Asian continent to the

Pacific Ocean, one can observe consistent change of

Precambrian shield areas into Palaeozoic, Mesozoic

and Cenozoic fold (orogenic) belts, then into

depressions of modern margin-continental seas and

into seismo-tectonic active volcanic island arcs and

associated deep-sea trenches. And further is a wide

deep-ocean floor, which is outwardly calm but

shows active submarine tholeiite -basaltic

volcanism. This is the most complete set of

structures characterizing the transition from the

ancient parts of a thick and extremely complex

continental crust through its intermediate types to a

thin ocean crust with a rather simple structure

(Khanchuk et al.,2009).

2 SATELLITES AND SATELLITE

DATA RECEIVING AND

PROCESSING CENTERS

In the Far East, existing Earth Observation Satellite

Systems and data processing technologies provide

hundreds of millions of measurements of various

ocean, atmosphere and land geophysical and space

parameters every day.

There are two centers for the Natural

Environment Satellite Monitoring in this region: the

Gordeev E., Naumova V. and Diakov S.

Remote Sensing for Scientiﬁc Research in Earth Sciences in the Russian Far East.

DOI: 10.5220/0005420600170020

In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Telecommunications and Remote Sensing (ICTRS 2014), pages 17-20

ISBN: 978-989-758-033-8

center of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) in

Vladivostok and the Branch of Scientific and

Research Centre on Space Hydrometeorology

"Planeta" (SRC "Planeta") in Khabarovsk.

SRC "Planeta" is the leading organization in

Russia on exploitation and development of national

space systems for the hydro-meteorological,

oceanographic, helio-geophysical and natural

environment monitoring and also on receiving and

processing of data from foreign satellites. It

cooperates with national hydro-meteorological

services and space agencies in more than 30

countries: USA, EU, Japan, India, China, Korea and

etc. The Branch of SRC "Planeta" receives and

processes the real-time data from meteorological

satellites Meteor M-1, MTSAT-1R, MTSAT-2,

POES NOAA, Terra, Aqua, Suomi NPP and

RadarSat-1 satellite. The satellite imagery

processing is aimed to make a weather forecast from

the information on the atmosphere state and the

Earth's surface physical parameters reconstruction.

The multiple-access regional center for the

natural environment satellite monitoring of FEB

RAS receives, holds and distributes satellite and

relevant data for scientific investigations in the

Russian Far East, makes the data processing

automatic and integrates the data into global

information systems, as well as conducts primary

processing-correction, calibration and geographic

reference of the imagery (Remote Sensing of

Environment, 2013). Several receiving stations work

simultaneously in the center. Using the ordering

system, the customer is given temperature fields,

reflection coefficients and other physical parameters

in the form of instantaneous and composite

measurements. Historically, the laboratory for

satellite monitoring of the Institute of Automation

and Control Processes of FEB RAS, on the base on

which the center was established, was aimed to

provide the data on the ocean surface temperatures

fields to the Pacific Scientific-Research Fisheries

Center and the Pacific Oceanological Institute of

FEB RAS. This aim predetermined the choice of the

polar-orbiting satellites: POES NOAA, AQUA,

TERRA, FY-1C, FY-1D, MetOp, Meteor M-1,

MTSAT-1R, MTSAT-2, FY-2B, FY-2C. Using

these and other satellite Centers data, the researches

solve geological and volcanological problems in the

Russian Far East.

2.1 Volcanogenic Processes Analysis

Daily satellite monitoring of Kamchatka volcanoes,

using MTSAT, NOAA (AVHRR), TERRA и AQUA

(MODIS) imagery, is carried out to reveal the

increase of volcanic activity, predict volcanic

eruptions, and track on-going eruptions (Girina,

2013; Gordeev and Girina, 2014).

Volcanogenic process is analyzed in detail. The

data from TERRA ASTER, LANDSAT and other

satellites allow studying thermal anomalies, ash plumes,

extrusive cones, distribution and morphology of eruptive

products (lava and pyroclastic flows, tephras etc).

Detail analysis of volcanic processes (the

development of thermal anomalies and the state of

volcanoes) allows revealing, for example, a gradual

decrease of activity at Kizimen Volcano in 2013, and

vice versa a resumption of explosive activity at

Karymsky Volcano. Different satellite imagery

showed aerosol clouds and plumes, ash clouds and

plumes, lava flows and their height and length.

2.2 The Development of a Satellite

Monitoring System the Kurile

Island

The territory of the Russian Far East hosts 66 active

volcanoes, 36 of them on the Kurile Islands, 30

active volcanoes on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Though the Kuriles are almost uninhabited at the

present time, the probable ash emissions from

volcanic eruptions into the upper atmosphere are

extremely dangerous to aviation. In 2003 SVERT

(Sakhalin Volcanic Eruption Response Team) was

established on the base of the Institute of Marine

Geology and Geophysics of FEB RAS in

cooperation with the Sakhalin Geophysical Survey

of RAS and the Russian Federal Geological Fund

"RosGeolFund" of the Federal Subsoil Agency

RosNedra with the support from the Alaska Volcano

Observatory (AVO, the University of Alaska

Fairbanks). The SVERT members process the data

from the MODIS/AQUA into one satellite imagery

per day to have the information on the current state

of the Kurile Islands volcanoes (Diakov and Rybin,

2013). Satellites do not provide nighttime images

and prevent from observations of "hot spots", which

are the eruption precursors.

The members of the Center for Regional Satellite

Monitoring of Environment FEB RAS organized full

automatic delivery of satellite data for the SVERT

specialists.

The pseudocolor images for detection of gas and

steam emissions, ash emissions and hot spots (in

case of the nighttime satellite images), the

monochrome images of 11micron and 12micron, 8

micron and 12 microns channels differential for ash

clouds detection and the monochrome images of

Third International Conference on Telecommunications and Remote Sensing

3,75 micron and 11micron channels differential for

hot spots detection are delivered.

In addition to the products developed on the

basis of the TERRA MODIS and AQUA MODIS

data, the analogous products developed on the basis

of the AVHRR/POES NOAA data are delivered.

2.3 The Development of Technologies

for Satellite Data Analysis in Order

to Find the Solution of Problems of

Structural Geology and Tectonics

The detection of linear structures, faults, tectonic

blocks of various recycling rate, the definition of

boundaries of different types geological structures

and zones.

Usually to solve the problems of structural

geology and tectonics based on the data from remote

sensing we apply hyper-spectral method, using the

data on the visible and near-IR spectrum and the

ground temperature inversion. This technology does

not fit the conditions of the Far East, therefore the

main method to solve this problem is to detect the

linear structure on the basis of the data from the

channels of the visible band of electromagnetic

spectrum and the data from the radar sounding.

One of the examples of such works, being

carried out in the Far East, is the work of the

researches of the Institute of Tectonics and

Geophysics FEB RAS (Melnichenko et al., 2013).

They estimated the absolute value of the relief

gradient, analyzed the linear structure, investigated

the morphometric characteristics of the bottom and

the character of its deformations in Philippine Sea.

They revealed that structurally the Philippine Sea is

a very special, isolated part of the Pacific Ocean. Its

west part comprises of fault structures of the ocean,

which were renovated in the new Cenozoic Period of

the Philippine Sea development. Its east part

developed in sharply changed geodynamic

conditions and is the newest overlaid structure.

2.4 The Remote Sensing Survey in the

Russian Far East Ore-Bearing

Areas for Minerogenic

Reconstruction

The characteristic feature of the south-east of Russia

is the abundance of the alluvial and the hard-rock

gold occurrences and the platinum-group elements.

More than 15 Late Mesozoic minerogenic belts and

their fragments were revealed in the east of the

continental part. The existence of not evident signs

of Late Mesozoic intraplate magmatics zonal

distribution allows assuming that location of the

platinum-metal and the gold-bearing massifs within

the raise areas is caused by the influence of

homogeneous processes and their probable

belonging to the single structure of the stagnate 410-

670 km-deep mantle slab associated with the

subduction zone. If we consider tectonic zones and

belts to be dissipative structures, then we can apply

the same methods of investigation. This approach

opens the possibility of integration of the results

from the remote space, geophysical and geochemical

observations with the possibility of a formal test of

hypotheses of a logic deposits location (Shevyrev,

2013).

2.5 The Development of the System

Providing Satellite Measurements

Data to the Far East Scientific

Investigations in Geology

The usual source of satellite data to solve such

problems are the U.S. Geological Survey's

EarthExplorer and GloVis. The EarthExplorer and

GloVis services provide an open access to a large

amount of satellite data available upon the request.

The request execution time for the full-resolution

images can take up to three days, the formats for the

results presentation could be of interest for the

experts in satellite data processing and

interpretation. At present time the data from satellite

sounding are hardly used in the Far Eastern

geological investigations. One of the ways to

activate the use of satellite data is the decision to

establish the System providing satellite

measurements data to the Far Eastern investigations

in the field of geology. We assume that this system

will provide the access to the main satellite data

useful for geological investigations such as: the

satellite topography data, the infrared channels of

the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer

(AVHRR) and The Moderate Resolution Imaging

Spectroradiometer (MODIS) data, the data from the

visible channels of the TERRA MODIS and AQUA

MODIS measurements, the data from the Landsat

series satellites.

The specific features of this system should be the

limited amount of satellite images because the

geological objects are rather constant and the

observation conditions for selected images are rather

similar and this should make the search and

comparison of satellite images easier. On the other

hand, in order to make the immediate use of the data

easier, we offer to use the GeoTIFF data formats for

Remote Sensing for Scientific Research in Earth Sciences in the Russian Far East

the Geographic Information System (GIS) projects

and the ESRI Grid format for the measurements

results and digital products. This system is being

developed in the Far East Geological Institute FEB

RAS. In 2013 the functional prototype of the

System, providing the access to the satellite

topography data STRM and the data from Landsat 8,

Landsat 7 satellites was realized. The functional

prototype helps to investigate the data domain and

work out the interaction of the Far East Geological

Institute GIS portal with the other systems providing

the access to satellite data (Diakov and Naumova,

2013).

We can distinguish the main application fields

for the data and the data processing technologies of

this System:

types of underlying surfaces classification

(basalts, granites and so on) on data from the visible

channels of MODIS, OLI (LANDSAT-8), ETM+

(LANDSAT-7);

heat capacity mapping of the earth's surface (the

data from IR radiometers);

use of the satellite topography (STRM, Aster)

data for geo-morphological analysis of the earth's

surface, topographic bases generation and etc.;

search and analysis of geometric structures at the

Earth's surface: faults, ring structures on the basis of

satellite topography data and measurements in the

visible spectrum;

"hot spots" and "hot" faults investigation on data

from MODIS and AVHRR IR spectrum

radiometers;

monitoring of gas composition penetrating into

atmosphere through the earth's crust;

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Third International Conference on Telecommunications and Remote Sensing