Landform monitoring in active volcano by UAV and SfM-MVS technique

Abstract. Nishinoshima volcano in Ogasawara Islands has erupted since November, 2013. This volcanic eruption formed and enlarged a new island, and fused the new island with the old Nishinoshima Island. We performed automated aerial photographing using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) over the joined Nishinoshima Island on March 22 and July 4, 2014. We produced ortho-mosaic photos and digital elevation model (DEM) data by new photogrammetry software with computer vision technique, i.e. Structure from Motion (SfM) for estimating the photographic position of the camera and Multi-view Stereo (MVS) for generating the 3-D model. We also estimated the area and volume of the new island via analysis of ortho-mosaic photo and DEM data. Transition of volume estimated from the UAV photographing and other photographing shows the volcanic activity still keeps from initial level. The ortho-mosaic photos and DEM data were utilized to create an aerial photo interpretation map and a 3-D map. These operations revealed new knowledge and problems to be solved on the photographing and analysis using UAV and new techniques as this was first case in some respects.