Satellite Studies of Craters of the Moon Geothermal Area

Abstract

A close ecological pattern existsbetween plant communities and geothermal groundin the Taupo Volcanic Zone (TVZ). LANDSAT-TM (30m spatial resolution) and SPOT XS (20 m) imagery acquired over the TVZ have been examined for identifying geothermal areas. Many non-geothermal studies have shown that, for the three similar wavelength bands, the SPOT XS imagery is superior because of its higher spatial resolution. However, one combination of TM bands, employing a near infrared (NIR) wavelength band not available on SPOTimagery, clearly identified thermally stressed vegetation. The spectral contribution of the NIR TM band is more important for this detection than the higher spatial resolution provided by the SPOT XS data. Merging the spectral power of this TM combination with the very high spatial resolution (10 of the SPOTPAN data both the spectral and spatial contributions of the two satellite systems. This provides even better results.