FUTUREVOLC: A European Volcanological Supersite in Iceland, a Monitoring System and Network for the Future
Sigmundsson, Freysteinn1; Hooper, Andy2; Prata, Fred3; Gudmundsson, Magnus T.1; Kylling, Arve4; Hreinsdottir, Sigrun1; Ofeigsson, Benedikt G.5; Spaans, Karsten2; Vincent, Drouin1; Jordan, Colm J.6; Vogfjord, Kristin5; Kristinsson, Ingvar5; Loughlin, Sue6; Ilyinskaya, Evgenia6; Witham, Claire7; Bean, Chris8; Ripepe, Maurizio9; Minet, Christian10; FUTUREVOLC, Consortium11
1Nordic Volcanological Center, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, ICELAND; 2University of Leeds, UNITED KINGDOM; 3Nicarnica Aviation, NORWAY; 4NILU - Norwegian Institute for Air Research, NORWAY; 5Icelandic Meteorological Office, ICELAND; 6British Geological Survey, UNITED KINGDOM; 7UK Met Office, UNITED KINGDOM; 8University College Dublin, IRELAND; 9University of Florence, ITALY; 10DLR - Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, GERMANY; 11EC FP7 Project, ICELAND

FUTUREVOLC is a collaborative project funded through the FP7 Environment call, encompassing 26 partners in 10 countries. The main objectives of FUTUREVOLC are to establish an integrated volcanological monitoring procedure through European collaboration, develop new methods to evaluate volcanic crises, increase scientific understanding of magmatic processes, and improve early warning of eruptions and delivery of relevant information to civil protection and authorities. To reach these objectives the project combines broad European expertise in seismology, volcano deformation, volcanic gas and geochemistry, infrasound, eruption monitoring, physical volcanology, satellite studies of plumes, meteorology, ash dispersal forecasting, and civil protection. Iceland was selected as a laboratory supersite area for demonstration because of (i) the relatively high rate of large eruptions with potential for long ranging effects, and (ii) Iceland's capability to produce the near full spectrum of volcano processes at its many different volcano types.

The project applies a combination of space and ground based observations, both for (i) studies of volcano unrest and magma movements prior to eruptions and (ii) the monitoring of eruptive activity, volcanic plumes and ash dispersal during eruptions.
Additionally, first experiments using Intermediate DEM's of the German TanDEM-X mission will be conducted with the aim of measuring topography changes on the ice caps covering the volcanoes. FUTUREVOLC has the aim to exploit future ESA missions such as Sentinel-1 when they come on line, as well as spaceborne IR and microwave radiometry.

Volcano deformation mapped with InSAR will be combined with continuous GPS tracking of displacements, in order to constrain models of active deformation sources at volcanoes. The results will be combined with relocated earthquakes, for better understanding of physical processes taking place inside volcanoes prior to eruptions. During eruptions, satellite constraints on plume dispersal will be combined with ground based observations to estimate the mass eruption rate and the amount of ash distributed to far distances. The outlook for future combined space and ground based monitoring and observations of Icelandic volcanoes will be evaluated with respect to experience gained in relation to the Eyjafjallajoekull 2010 and Grimsvoetn 2011 eruptions.

One of the ultimate aims of FUTUREVOLC is to embed EO within a seamless transdisciplinary approach to further scientific understanding of physical processes ranging from deep magma transport, through eruption dynamics to plume dispersion and deposition of eruptive products. Improving delivery of results will be activated through unprecedented access to large volumes of data following the data sharing principles of GEO and the visions set forth by GEOSS.