Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Annals of Geophysics, 2(57)
DOI: 10.4401/ag-6396
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In this paper, we use calibrated images collected by the video-surveillance system of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Osservato-rio Etneo, to retrieve the height of the eruption column during the recent Etna explosive activity. The analysis is carried out on nineteen lava foun-tains from the New South East Crater dataset. The novel procedure de-scribed in this work is achieved in three main steps: at first we calibrated the camera, then we selected the images which recorded the maximum phase of the eruptive activity, and finally we applied an appropriate cor-rection to account for the plume projection on the camera line of sight due to the wind. The results show that the column altitudes range between 6 and 9 km (upper limit of the camera system). The comparison with the plume height values estimated from the analysis of several SEVIRI and MODIS satellite images, show a good agreement. Finally, for nine events we also evaluated the thickness of the volcanic plumes in the umbrella re-gion which ranges between 2 and 3 km.