Operational Use of Insar for Volcano Observatories: Experience in Local Reception at Montserrat

A volcano observatory that is monitoring an erupting volcano(es) needs as much relevant data as it can get in a timely manner. InSAR has, potentially, a major role to play in delivering information on ground deformation and topographic change that can feed into the crisis management process. The Montserrat Volcano Observatory (MVO) has been observing the ongoing eruption of the Soufriere Hills Volcano since 1995. We have been studying the ERS-derived InSAR data acquired for Montserrat by the Cotopaxi ground station. These data, mostly from mid-1997 onwards, are exclusively from ascending passes. This is because the satellite(s) is just out of range of the Cotopaxi ground station in the descending pass. Also these data are only usually available at MVO about 3 weeks or more after acquisition. In March-June 2000 we mounted an experiment to test the capabilities of local ground reception of both ascending and descending pass ERS SAR data at MVO and their immediate processing as InSAR products. This used a BURS/RAPIDS receiving system that was shipped to the island and set up in the observatory grounds. Here we report on the success of that deployment and the problems encountered.