Time-averaged discharge rate of subaerial lava at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, measured from TanDEM-X interferometry: Implications for magma supply and storage during 2011-2013

Differencing digital elevation models (DEMs) derived from TerraSAR add-on for Digital Elevation Measurements (TanDEM-X) synthetic aperture radar imagery provides a measurement of elevation change over time. On the East Rift Zone (EZR) of Kīlauea Volcano, Hawai‘i, the effusion of lava causes changes in topography. When these elevation changes are summed over the area of an active lava flow, it is possible to quantify the volume of lava emplaced at the surface during the time spanned by the TanDEM-X data—a parameter that can be difficult to measure across the entirety of an ~100 km2 lava flow field using ground-based techniques or optical remote sensing data. Based on the differences between multiple TanDEM-X-derived DEMs collected days to weeks apart, the mean dense-rock equivalent time-averaged discharge rate of lava at Kīlauea between mid-2011 and mid-2013 was approximately 2 m3/s, which is about half the long-term average rate over the course of Kīlauea's 1983–present ERZ eruption. This result implies that there was an increase in the proportion of lava stored versus erupted, a decrease in the rate of magma supply to the volcano, or some combination of both during this time period. In addition to constraining the time-averaged discharge rate of lava and the rates of magma supply and storage, topographic change maps derived from space-based TanDEM-X data provide insights into the four-dimensional evolution of Kīlauea's ERZ lava flow field. TanDEM-X data are a valuable complement to other space-, air-, and ground-based observations of eruptive activity at Kīlauea and offer great promise at locations around the world for aiding with monitoring not just volcanic eruptions but any hazardous activity that results in surface change, including landslides, floods, earthquakes, and other natural and anthropogenic processes.