Remote sensing of global volcanic eruptions using Fengyun series satellites
The serious impact of volcanic eruption to aviation and the long term climate have gained widely public attention in recently years. China's meteorological satellites (Fengyun series) have gradually become an integral part of the global satellite observation system and also provide a new data source for monitoring global volcanic eruption. In this work, recent researches and applications about volcanic eruption using China's meteorological satellites was introduced. Our researches are mainly focused on three aspects, including "hot spot” detection using mid-infrared channels, volcanic ash detection using China's new generation polar-orbiting satellites (FY-3), and volcanic ash mass loading estimation. A new approach for quantitatively estimation of volcanic ash mass loading was proposed, which was developed in preparation for China's new generation of geostationary satellite FY-4. These study shows China's meteorological satellites and the algorithms developed based on these satellites have great potential to be used in future operational work.