New satellite data to help monitor deformation of Hawaiian volcanoes

TerraSAR-X, a new satellite launched by the German Space Agency, provides high-resolution radar data over Hawai‘i. The summit caldera of Kīlauea Volcano is very clear in a TerraSAR-X image acquired in November 2009 (left). An image of the caldera taken at about the same time by the ENVISAT satellite (right) has much lower resolution.