Remote sensing of the El Hierro submarine volcanic eruption plume

Submarine volcanic eruptions took place at the island El Hierro (Canary Islands) between October 2011 and March 2012. The event produced plumes of discoloured waters due to the discharge of volcanic matter, magmatic gases, and hydrothermal fluids. The expelled materials, which behaved like oceanic tracers, were detected from the site of the volcano to the open sea by remote-sensing techniques using different level-2 (L2) products of the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor. In order to assess the effect of the anomalous turbidity, three atmospheric correction schemes were evaluated: SeaWiFS Data Analysis System (SeaDAS) standard, near-infrared–shortwave-infrared (NIR-SWIR), and Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM). The comparison between them verified that the SeaDAS standard atmospheric correction was the most suitable. The downwelling diffuse attenuation coefficient at 490 nm (Kd(490)) was used as a measure of plume intensity in comparison with other submar...