ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to some of the contemporary issues associated with volcano monitoring. In the future, thermal monitoring of active volcanoes is likely to become increasingly important. Despite the increasing use of satellites for volcano surveillance, ground-based techniques continue to form the basis of most monitoring networks. The development of an efficient and workable strategy for volcano surveillance is desirable both at the level of the individual volcano and globally. Satellite and airborne monitoring are complementary in that they offer different services to the volcanologist. The future potential of spacebome synthetic aperture radar (SAR) interferometry to monitor changes in topography at active volcanoes has recently been investigated using an airborne SAR instrument known as topsar. The chapter discusses the development of sensible monitoring strategies, and highlights the role of monitoring in eruption forecasting and prediction, and hazard mitigation. Forecasting or predicting volcanic eruptions is essentially an exercise in pattern recognition.
