Patterns of Change in Terrestrial Emittance for Yellowstone National Park Using a 20-year Time Series of Landsat Thermal Data
Abstract
Yellowstone National Park (YNP) contains the world's largest concentration of geothermal features and is legally mandated to protect and monitor these natural features. Remote sensing is a component of the current geothermal monitoring plan. Landsat satellite data have a substantial historical archive and will continue to be collected into the future, making it the only available thermal imagery for historical analysis and long-term monitoring of geothermal areas in the entirety of YNP. Landsat imagery from Thematic Mapper (TM) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) sensors was used to examine change trajectories for terrestrial emittance (an estimate of all heat emitted from the ground, based on relatively narrow band observations) among spatial groupings from 1986 to 2007. The trajectories were normalized by the mean terrestrial emittance for each date to account for year-to-year ambient temperature differences. Trajectories of locations with known change events at Narrow Gauge in the Mammoth Area, Minerva Terraces in the Mammoth Area, Porkchop Geyser in Gibbon Canyon, and Jewel Geyser in the Firehole River Drainage were also examined. Relationships between the spatial groupings and several change vectors (distance to geologic faults, distance to large water bodies, and distance to earthquake swarms) were explored. The analysis showed the strongest relationship between absolute difference in terrestrial emittance and earthquake swarms, with 34% of the variation explained. Certain known change events were reflected in the change trajectories, while the Landsat imagery was not able to detect other known events. This suggests that Landsat imagery might be a useful tool for monitoring geothermal responses in YNP, but cannot be expected to suffice as the sole monitoring tool.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.B54C..07L
- Keywords:
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- 0450 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Hydrothermal systems;
- 0480 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Remote sensing