High-resolution and accurate topography reconstruction of Mount Etna from Pleiades satellite data

Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy; Marina Bisson; Claudia Spinetti; Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno; Oleg Alexandrov; Thomas Cecere

doi:10.3390/rs11242983

High-resolution and accurate topography reconstruction of Mount Etna from Pleiades satellite data

Remote Sensing

By: Monica Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Marina Bisson, Claudia Spinetti, Maria Fabrizia Buongiorno, Oleg Alexandrov, and Thomas Cecere

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11242983

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Abstract

The areas characterized by dynamic and rapid morphological changes need accurate topography information with frequent updates, especially if these are populated and involve infrastructures. This is particularly true in active volcanic areas such as Mount (Mt.) Etna, located in the northeastern portion of Sicily, Italy. The Mt. Etna volcano is periodically characterized by explosive and effusive eruptions and represents a potential hazard for several thousands of local people and hundreds of tourists present on the volcano itself. In this work, a high-resolution, high vertical accuracy digital surface model (DSM) of Mt. Etna was derived from Pleiades satellite data using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Stereo Pipeline (ASP) tool set. We believe that this is the first time that the ASP using Pleiades imagery has been applied to Mt. Etna with sub-meter vertical root mean square error (RMSE) results. The model covers an area of about 400 km² with a spatial resolution of 2 m and centers on the summit portion of the volcano. The model was validated by using a set of reference ground control points (GCP) obtaining a vertical RMSE of 0.78 m. The described procedure provides an avenue to obtain DSMs at high spatial resolution and elevation accuracy in a relatively short amount of processing time, making the procedure itself suitable to reproduce topographies often indispensable during the emergency management case of volcanic eruptions.

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Additional publication details
Publication type	Article
Publication Subtype	Journal Article
Title	High-resolution and accurate topography reconstruction of Mount Etna from Pleiades satellite data
Series title	Remote Sensing
DOI	10.3390/rs11242983
Volume	11
Issue	24
Year Published	2019
Language	English
Publisher	MDPI
Contributing office(s)	Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Description	2983, 17 p.
Country	Italy
Other Geospatial	Mount Etna
Google Analytic Metrics	Metrics page