Geothermal hotspot detection with ECOSTRESS data (GeoHot)

NASA’s thermal ECOSTRESS mission was designed to measure evaporative plant stress on a near-global scale. In the GeoHot project we are planning to use these data for geologic applications, namely to investigate high-enthalpy geothermal resources, a vital source in the global energy transition. The aim of this project is to optimize the geothermal temperature anomaly detection from space by using a different and innovative approach. In a first step, the unique orbit of ECOSTRESS will be used to assess the reliability of geothermal anomaly detection from individual images obtained at different nighttime overpass acquisitions. Secondly, we will use short ECOSTRESS time series from adjacent days with stable weather conditions. We will investigate nighttime temperature decay rather than absolute temperatures. Extrapolation of nighttime temporal decrease in temperature provides hypothetical steady-state temperatures, even if that stable temperature is not recorded at the end of the night. The proposed approach will side-step two issues of the current state-of-the-art: 1) the effect of solar heating and the initial temperature at the beginning of the night are inconsequential for our result and 2) variations of thermal inertia in the geologic substrate are controlled by looking at the steady-state temperatures which are inertia independent. This NWO-GO funded project runs from 2021 to 2024 and will result in an assessment of ECOSTRESS’ potential for improved near-global geothermal anomaly detection. In this paper we will give an overview of the planned activities as well as the very early results.