Volcanic activity on IO

Details. Io is the most volcanically active body in our Solar System. Having studied Io through multiple spacecraft encounters and ground-based monitoring for 40 years, we are now moving from a basic understanding of Io's volcanism to investigations of greater significance, concerning internal structure, volcanic advection, and temporal evolution. Ground-based monitoring programs observing in the M-band have been gradually filling in this picture. Resolution for these programs on 8-10 meter telescopes is about 500 km on Io’s surface. SHARK-VIS will provide a much higher resolution around 50 km, which will enable us to monitor the Io surface in great detail  and identify areas of volcanic activity by changes in surface albedo or color, so as to study the effects induced by volcanic activity. In addition, visible wavelength observations will be able to detect the highest temperature features that are sufficiently bright in nighttime or eclipse images or even in daylight, to reveal volcanic plumes against the blackness of space by both forward- and backscattered light, and to identify the style of eruption (lava flow as opposed to lava lake, for example) for many volcanic systems.