Landsat Thermal Infrared based Monitoring of Heat Losses from Kuju Fumaroles Area in Japan

The prime objective of our study was to monitor heat losses by using Landsat 7 thermal infrared data from the active fumarolic region of Kuju volcano in Japan. We estimated the radiative heat flux (RHF) of the Kuju fumaroles from 2002 to 2010, used the Stefan -Boltzmann equation. Then, heat discharge rate (HDR) was calculated by using the relationship coefficient of RHF and HDR, obtained from two previous studies. The highest total RHF was found about 57.7 MW in 2002 and lowest about 21.1 MW in 2010. The total RHF decreased from 2002 to 2007 about 33 MW; then, it slight increased about 5 MW in 2008 from 2007, and finally declined about 9MW from 2008 to 2010 in Kuju fumaroles. We found highest HDR about 384.5 MW in 2002 and lowest about 140.8 MW in 2010.The relationship between land surface temperature above ambient and RHF was an expected strong correlation for each result during our study period. RHF anomalous area showed a declining trend in overall during our study period. Overall, our study was able to delineate the decline trend of heat losses that was supported by the previous study of similar declining trend of HDR using steam maximum diameter method from active fumarolic region of Kuju volcano.