Researchers from the University of Bristol’s COMET group shared new results on volcanic processes and monitoring at EGU 2026 in Vienna. 

From May 3–8, members of the COMET group at the University of Bristol, led by Prof. Juliet Biggs (COMET co-director), attended the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2026 in Vienna, Austria. EGU is one of the largest geoscience conferences in the world, bringing together researchers across Earth, planetary, and environmental sciences. This year, our group contributed a wide range of talks, posters, and PICO presentations spanning volcanic deformation, dike intrusion processes, earthquake swarms, geodetic methods, remote sensing, and science communication. 

It was a busy and exciting week, with presentations spread across many sessions and opportunities to discuss new research with collaborators and colleagues from around the world. 

Monday: Modelling and Discussion across Disciplines 

The week started with Prof. Juliet Biggs co-chairing the session GMPV10.12 Volcanic processes: tectonics, deformation, geodesy, unrest. The group enjoyed a fantastic series of talks throughout the session and had the opportunity to catch up with colleagues and collaborators from around the world. 

In the afternoon, Alexandra Morand presented her work during the PICO session GMPV12.1 Advances in computational modelling, data analysis, and visualisation. Her work, titled Coupling a fluid phase with a discretised solid phase: Benchmarking a Computational Fluid Dynamics–Discrete Element Methods (CFD-DEM) model with analogue experiments, explored a new numerical modelling framework that couples fluid flow with elastic and brittle deformation of surrounding rocks.

Tuesday: Seismicity, Deformation, and Magma Transport in the Rift 

Tuesday was one of the busiest days of the week, with multiple group members presenting across different sessions spanning seismology, rifting, and remote sensing. 

The day started early with Simon Orrego presenting in TS1.8 Seismic and aseismic fault deformation. His talk, Investigating seismic and aseismic fault motion caused by the 2024–2025 Fentale dyke intrusions in Ethiopia, provides new constraints on fault mechanics and the interaction with magmatic processes in rifting environments. 

Later in the afternoon, Weiyu Zheng presented in the session GI6.1 Remote sensing for environmental monitoring. The talk, Towards reliable X-band InSAR monitoring of complex deformation: Insights from the 2024-2025 Fentale-Dofen Magma Intrusion, focused on improving InSAR unwrapping results for complex volcanic deformation, particularly during dike intrusion events. 

Immediately afterwards, Ben Ireland presented in TS2.1 Rift evolution: from continental inception to seafloor spreading. The talk, Along-rift variations in magma system geometry observed using Sentinel-1 InSAR data from the East African Rift System, highlighting that magma systems along the East African Rift evolve from horizontally to vertically dominated geometries, indicating structural differences in magmatic system architecture. 

The day concluded with Lin Way presenting her poster in GMPV10.12 Volcanic processes: tectonics, deformation, geodesy, unrest. Her presentation, Reservoir connectivity in a continental rift: Insights from geodetic observations during the 2024-2025 dike intrusions at Fentale, Main Ethiopian Rift, showed that tracking the evolving volume ratio between dike intrusion and magma reservoir deflation provides new insights into changes to the magmatic system. 

Wednesday: Science into Policy 

Wednesday is featured by Prof. Juliet Biggs presenting in the session EOS4.6 Strengthening Policy Through Science: Insights from the interface. Her talk, Science into Policy: how satellite data can support decision-making during volcanic crises around the world – a recent example from East Africa, highlighted how satellite observations and geodetic analysis can directly support decision-making during volcanic crises. 

Thursday: Dyke Seismicity and Geodetic Methods 

Thursday started with Tim Davis presenting in SM7.1 Beyond the Catalog: Unraveling the mechanisms of Earthquake Swarms and Sequences in Tectonic and Volcanic Regions. The session began with two talks on the seismicity of the 2025 Santorini intrusion, leading nicely into his talk, Two-stage model of propagation and arrest explains ubiquitous patterns of dyke seismicity. He showed that a 3D hydromechanical model can explain the observed patterns of dyke-related seismicity and deformation across multiple intrusions both before and after arrest. 

In the afternoon, Tianyuan Zhu presented her poster in G3.3 Space, Land and Marine geodetic methods to advance lithospheric processes understanding and hazards assessment. Her presentation, Monitoring Volcanic Deformation Using InSAR: An Optimised InSAR Time-Series Approach for Seasonally Snow-Covered Volcanoes, focused on improving InSAR time-series analysis in seasonally snow-covered volcanic regions, enhancing the reliability of deformation measurements in challenging environments. 

Friday: Volcanic Emissions 

The week concluded with Edna Dualeh’s poster in the session GMPV11.5 Volcanic Eruptions and Climate: Observations. Her work, Satellite detection of methane outburst from an East African volcano, showed the first satellite observations of large, transient methane emission associated with magma–sediment interactions during a volcanic intrusion. Although Edna was unable to attend EGU, her work, presented on her behalf by Tim, attracted strong interest and discussion throughout the session.  

Concluding remarks 

EGU 2026 was a busy and rewarding week for the Bristol COMET Group, with contributions across oral, poster, and PICO sessions covering a wide range of topics in volcanology, tectonics, remote sensing, and decision support. It was an excellent opportunity to share new results, exchange ideas, and receive feedback from colleagues working on similar problems around the world. Beyond the presentations, the meeting also provided valuable time for the group to catch up with collaborators and discuss ongoing and future research in an inspiring scientific environment. 

Advances in volcano monitoring driven by the first decade of Sentinel-1 observations

A new paper, from a team led by COMET Co-Director Professor Juliet Biggs, has marked ten years of operational service of the Sentinel-1 satellite by reviewing the ways in which it has transformed volcanology.

Use of data from Sentinel-1 (the first satellite of the ESA Copernicus programme) has been gladly adopted as common practice in the field over the last decade thanks to its long term, systematic archive of data, and a policy of open access.

In this study, the team identified 233 high-priority volcanoes as requiring frequent satellite observation. Of these, data obtained by Sentinel-1 has been utilised in published research for about 90 of them. This kind of repeated usage highlights the growing impact of remote sensing satellite data in volcanology.

The team analysed a vast archive of 3.34 million interferogram images processed by COMET’s LICS system and applied machine learning to retrospectively detect the telltale signals of volcanic eruptions. A test on this scale clear demonstrates the promise for these automated approaches in large-scale monitoring.

Data from Sentinel-1 can be applied to monitoring a large range of volcanic settings, as demonstrated in various sites across the world. In Iceland, Hawai’i, and the Galápagos, Sentinel-1 InSAR is integrated into routine monitoring of frequently erupting basaltic volcanoes, and used to identify magma pathways and forecast the outcomes of unrest.

In contrast, InSAR measurements could not be made, or were not useful, at several of the large explosive eruptions that occurred during the first decade, but Sentinel-1 SAR backscatter is increasingly being used to map damage associated with eruptive deposits and flank collapses.

These long term datasets of baseline monitoring have contributed significantly to the detection of subtle deformation signals, and identifying when a volcano first enters a stage of unrest. These datasets have provided new insights into complex subsurface processes, including interactions within magmatic plumbing systems, and those between magmatic and tectonic forces.

Even with the great advances we’ve seen from Sentinel-1, interpreting signals is still a challenge due to the amount of noise in the data, atmospheric interference, and complex natural surfaces. As such, it still relies heavily on being integrated with additional external datasets. 

Lead author of the paper, Professor Juliet Biggs said of the new paper, “It was a great privilege to work with researchers from so many different countries and institutions to review the different ways in which Sentinel-1 data is being used by volcanologists. It was exciting to see that the routine acquisition strategy and open-access data policy has opened the doors to large scale systematic analysis, and enabled volcano observatories to integrate satellite data into their real-time monitoring systems.”

The research was supported not just by COMET but also by funding from ERC Horizon 2020. A full list of project funders and supporters can be found in the Acknowledgements section of the paper.

This paper highlights a decade of innovation in the field of remote sensing, and shows exciting possibilities for extending the pioneering work of Sentinel-1. Future studies promise improved resolution and coverage, which can enhance our global volcano monitoring capabilities.

“New satellites planned for the next decade will provide yet another step change in capabilities unlocking further advances in volcanology and volcano monitoring. “

Find Out More

You can read the full article here:

Biggs, J. et al. (2026) Advances in volcano monitoring driven by the first decade of Sentinel-1 observations. Remote Sensing Of Environment. 339: 115377