Majalah Geologi Indonesia, Vol. 29 No.

2 Agustus 2014: 63-69

Extracting Linear Feature Density of SAR Data to Detect

the Paths of a Geothermal System

Ekstraksi Densitas Fitur Linier Data SAR

untuk Mendeteksi Jalur Sistem Panas Bumi

Asep Saepuloh1, Minoru Urai2, Suryantini1, Prihadi Sumintadireja1, Irwan Meilano1,

Agus H. Harsolumakso1, and Emmy Suparka1
1
Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB - Indonesia).
2
Institute of Geology and Geoinformation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and
Technology (AIST - Japan).

Corresponding author: saepuloh@gmail.com; saepuloh@gc.itb.ac.id

Manuscript received: October 3, 2013, revised: April 8, 2014, approved: August 8, 2014

ABSTRACT
The linear feature density related to geological structures is a key to predict fluid paths of a geothermal
system. Manual tracing of the linear features is efficient but not effective because of time consuming,
especially for a wide area with various Geomorphologic and Structural Features (GSF). An automatic
extraction of linear feature density from Synthetic Aperture Radar (lifedSAR) was used by taking into
account the statistical parameter to minimize the effect of man-made features and vegetation. The
Jampang area in West Java, Indonesia was selected as a study site in accordance with the existence of
Cimandiri Fault Zone (CFZ) and two active volcanoes: Mt. Salak and Mt. Gede. The existence of hot
springs at CFZ indicated that the fault systems might be served as the path to the source of geothermal
fluid. Thus, the heat source is aimed to be predicted through the Linear Feature Density (LFD). The
geological structure map and DEM SRTM 90 m were used to validate the correctness of the lifedSAR.
Keywords: lifedSAR, Geomorphologic and Structural Features, Cimandiri Fault Zone, geothermal fluid

ABSTRAK
Densitas fitur linier yang berhubungan dengan struktur geologi merupakan kunci untuk memprediksi
jalur fluida sistem panas bumi. Penggambaran manual fitur linier efisien, tapi tidak efektif karena
memerlukan waktu lama terutama untuk wilayah yang luas dengan berbagai Fitur Struktur dan
Geomorfologi (GSF). Sebuah ekstraksi otomatis densitas fitur linier dari Synthetic Aperture Radar
(lifedSAR) digunakan dengan memperhatikan parameter statistik untuk meminimalkan efek buatan
manusia dan vegetasi. Daerah Jampang di Jawa Barat, Indonesia, terpilih sebagai lokasi penelitian
sesuai dengan keberadaan Zona Sesar Cimandiri (CFZ) dan dua gunung api aktif: Gunung Salak dan
Gunung Gede. Keberadaan mata air panas di CFZ menunjukkan bahwa sistem sesar mungkin berlaku
sebagai jalan menuju sumber cairan panas bumi. Dengan demikian, sumber panas dapat diprediksi
melalui Densitas Fitur Linier (LFD). Peta struktur geologi dan DEM SRTM 90 m digunakan untuk
memvalidasi kebenaran lifedSAR.
Kata kunci: lifedSAR, Fitur Struktur dan Geomorfologi, Zona Sesar Cimandiri, cairan panas bumi

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 Majalah Geologi Indonesia, Vol. 29 No. 2 Agustus 2014: 63-69

INTRODUCTION about 0.5 to 1.7 cm/yr (Abidin et al., 2009).

The existence of hot springs at the southern
The geological structures, especially ac- flank of the CFZ and their origin are sup-
tive faults, usually control fluid flows and posed to be traced in this study.
surface manifestation in a geothermal sys-
The weak zones due to the faults and frac-
tem (Soengkono, 1999; Rosenberg, 2009).
tures might serve as fluid paths of a geother-
Detecting the geological structures directly
mal system (Demirel et al., 2004). According
using optical sensor data is difficult due to
to the existence of two active volcanoes at
vegetation cover, boundary of rock types,
the northern part from CFZ: Mt. Salak and
clouds, and/or erosion. Overcoming the
Mt. Gede, the lifedSAR is applied to predict
problem, the microwave sensor data are used
the possibility of continuity of the linear fea-
to detect geological structure presented by
tures connected to the heat source. The other
Geomorphologic and Structural Features
source possibilities such as faults derived
(GSF) in the back-scattering intensity of
thermal in this study were excluded (e.g.
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. This
Tianfeng, 1984; Serpen et al., 2009; Brogi,
paper is aimed to predict geothermal fluid
2008). Therefore, the discussion is focused
paths along an active fault and to interpret
on the hydrothermal related Quaternary vol-
the location of geothermal system using dual
canism acting as geothermal occurrences in
observation modes of SAR data.
West Java (Carranza et al., 2008).
An automatic extraction of the linear fea-
tures density from Synthetic Aperture Radar
termed as lifedSAR is used to quantify the DATA AND METHOD
geological structures around Cimandiri
Fault Zone (CFZ) (Saepuloh et al., 2013). The SAR back-scattering intensity data rep-
The CFZ located in West Java Province, resents the power return to the satellite as a
Indonesia is an active fault elongated from function of several surface parameters such
Pelabuhan Ratu, through Sukabumi, Cian- as roughness, gradient slope, magnetic, and
jur, and Padalarang (Figure 1). This fault dielectric property of the ground (Saepuloh
system has a horizontal displacement rate et al., 2012). The parameters are presented

o
-4 S

Mt. Salak

o Mt. Gede
-6 S JAWA

CFZ

- 8o S

170 km

o
10 S o o
110 E 115 E

Figure 1. Location of studied area in West Java, Indonesia (black square) and Cimandiri Fault Zone (black-
dashed polygon). Mt. Salak and Mt. Gede (black triangles) were overlaid to the map.

64
 Extracting Linear Feature Density of SAR Data to Detect the Paths of a Geothermal System
(A. Saepuloh et al.)

by the GSF in the SAR back-scattering
intensity images (Saepuloh et al., 2012).
According to the GSF, the ridges, valleys,
hills, and rivers are the crucial components
for detecting the linear features. Their geo-
morphology features are characterized by
high back-scattering intensity in general.
The Phased Array type L-band Synthetic
Aperture Radar (PALSAR) onboard the
Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS)
with two orbits mode: toward north (ascend-
ing) and south (descending) flight directions
are used in this study. Detail information
about data acquisition is listed in Table 1.
Table 1. ALOS PALSAR Data used in the Study
No Date Orbit
1 Oct. 10, 2009 Asc
2 Dec. 7, 2010 Des
The raw data of ALOS PALSAR were trans-
formed into Single Look Complex (SLC).
Then, the SLC data were quantified by a
multilook processing with 3×6 factor to keep
the spatial resolution of image along the
range and azimuth directions as 28 m and 23
m, respectively. Finally, the multilook image
in a slant range was transformed to ground
range direction based on simulated-DEM
derived from the SRTM 90 m data.
A problem arising at the edge of detection
step due to geometrical distortions in the
SAR data that the rough surface with high
gradient topography produced double edges
in the SAR back-scattering intensity images.
The double edges originated from back- and
fore-slope effects are detected as well. Thus,
selecting only the fore- or back-slope is suf-
ficient for this case. A statistical analysis is
applied to separate the fore- and back-slope
Path/Row effects. An optimum threshold for select-
438/705 ing the fore-slope is a third quartile of the
103/376 histogram. Therefore, this threshold is used
to separate the fore- and back-slop effects.
Figure 2 shows the SAR back-scattering
intensity images at the CFZ in ascending and
descending modes. The two orbits provided

Ascending Image Descending Image

-6.6 -6.6
-6.65 Mt. Salak -6.65 Mt. Salak
-6.7 -6.7
-6.75 Mt. Gede -6.75 Mt. Gede
-6.8 -6.8
-6.85 -6.85
Lat

Lat

-6.9 -6.9
-6.95 CFZ -6.95 CFZ
-7 -7
-7.05 -7.05
-7.1 -7.1
106.4 106.5 106.6 106.7 106.8 106.9 106.4 106.5 106.6 106.7 106.8 106.9
Lon Lon

-20 0 20 40 60 80 -20 0 20 40 60 80 100

Figure 2. SAR back-scattering intensity images of ALOS PALSAR in ascending (a) and descending (b) orbits.
The colour bar indicates the intensity values in dB and the arrow indicates Line of Sight (LOS) of satellite. Mt.
Salak and Mt. Gede are located in the north-northeastern part of the images and presented by black triangles.

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 Majalah Geologi Indonesia, Vol. 29 No. 2 Agustus 2014: 63-69

GSF in opposite points of satellite views. 3rd quartile of the histogram produced by eq.
Therefore, the use of dual orbits is useful [1], and Δp is pixel resolution.
for identifying complete linear features in
The extracted linear features in ascending
the SAR back-scattering intensity images.
and descending modes are depicted by red
The Laplacian of Gaussian (LoG) filter was
and blue lines in Figure 3. The addition
adopted for detecting the edge of the GSF.
procedure of both linear features was used
This filter has an advantage to minimize loss
as a basis for density calculation.
information and to decrease processing time
(Sotak and Boyer, 1989). The LoG kernel
filter was applied to the SAR back-scattering
RESULT AND DISCUSSION
intensity image, β, as follows:
x  y  2 2

 2  x, y  
x 2
 y  2 2 2
e  2 2
.....(1)
Figure 4a shows the LFD originated from
x 2
 y2  combination of two SAR back-scattering
intensity images as shown by Figure 2. This
2 6
e x y
 2 2

combination is useful to reduce SAR geo-

where x and y are spatial coordinates, and σ metrical problem such as shadowing and
(=0.5) is a selected constant of the Gauss- layover effects. The colour bar indicates the
ian standard deviation. Finally, the Linear density in percent grid from window size
Feature Density (LFD) could be calculated 10 × 10 pixels. The areas with 100% LFD
for each window size at 10×10 pixels as are located at a grid which is fully filled
follows: by the linear features. On the contrary,
w the areas without linear features will be 0
LFD   Ax n , y n Q75  p ............... (2) LFD. For this studied area, the minimum
n 1
and maximum linear features are located
where w is window size, A is pixel of linear in blue and red portions, respectively. The
features, Q75 is a selected threshold using the LFD values less than 0.3% and higher than

Detected Linear Features Ascending Descending

-6.6

-6.65

-6.7

-6.75

-6.8
Lat

-6.85

-6.9

-6.95

-7

-7.05

-7.1 125 km
106.4 106.45 106.5 106.55 106.6 106.65 106.7 106.75 106.8 106.85 106.9
Lon
Ascending+Descending

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Figure 3. The detected linear features using lifedSAR was shown by white pixels (left). The shadowing and
layover effects were compensated using SAR dual observation mode (right).

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 Extracting Linear Feature Density of SAR Data to Detect the Paths of a Geothermal System
(A. Saepuloh et al.)

ALOS PALSAR LFD LSTM LFD Eror Difference

-6.6 -6.6 -6.6

Mt. Salak Mt. Salak Mt. Salak

-6.7 -6.7 -6.7

Mt. Gede Mt. Gede Mt. Gede

-6.8 -6.8 -6.8

Lat
Lat

Lat
-6.9 -6.9 -6.9
CFZ CFZ CFZ

-7 -7 -7
8 km

-7.1 H-zone -7.1 H-zone -7.1 H-zone

106.4 106.6 106.8 106.4 106.6 106.8 106.4 106.6 106.8

Lon Lon Lon

0 0.5 1 0 0.5 1 10 20 30 40 50
% Grid % Grid %

Figure 4. The comparison of the detected LFD using ALOS PALSAR (a), simulated SRTM 90 m (b), and their
error differences (c). The hot springs were presented by white dotted arrows at the H-zone in the southern part
of images (red oval).

0.6% are classified as low and high densi- the elevation map, the high error differences
ties, respectively. are located at a flat terrain with an elevation
lower than 500 m.
To estimate the effectiveness of the SAR
back-scattering intensity, the same proce- Comparing to the published geological
dure was applied to the SRTM 90 m data. map of Bogor Quadrangle (Effendi et al.,
The elevation values of SRTM 90 m were 1998), the multi-look factor 3×6 of the
simulated following the ALOS PALSAR ALOS PALSAR data producing a pixel
Line of Sight (LOS). Then, the simulated spacing 28×19 m in range and azimuth di-
image was presented by shading with LOS rections is plausible to map the density of
angle as sun illumination. The same colour linear features for map scaling higher than
coding was used for a spatial mapping of the 1:100.000. The fault and fractured zones
LFD values. Figure 4b shows the LFD using are located at high LFD values. Moreover,
simulated SRTM 90 m data for the same the high values of LFD at N 65°E are also
boundary study. Comparing both data, we consistent with the field investigation of the
could see that the LFD originated from SAR sinistral strike-slip fault of CFZ at N 70°E
back-scattering intensity provides more (Dardji et al., 1994).
detail contour map than SRTM 90 m. The
LFD features could be detected clearly at the The hot springs located in CFZ coincide
CFZ using SAR back-scattering intensity, with high LFD at the southern part termed
but less effective in the SRTM 90 m. This as H-zone (Figure 4a). The fault and frac-
condition is supposed to be caused by the tured zones presented by high LFD are
higher spatial resolution and/or sensitivity interpreted as the path of the hydrothermal
of SAR back-scattering intensity data to the to the surface. It may infer that the H-zone
surface condition. Complete differences are serves as a discharge area of a geothermal
presented by error differences in Figure 4c. system. An interesting phenomenon could
The high differences of more than 30% are be seen that the high LFD values using
located between Mt. Salak and Mt. Gede and SAR back-scattering intensity and SRTM
also at northern part of Mt. Salak. Based on data continue from Mt. Salak toward south

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 Majalah Geologi Indonesia, Vol. 29 No. 2 Agustus 2014: 63-69
and then connected to the CFZ. However,
this continuity is disconnected to the H-
zone. On the contrary, the high LFD values
around Mt. Gede are isolated and bordered
by low LFD values. The localized faults
and fractures might be more dominant
at Mt. Gede than Mt. Salak. In addition,
the LFD values around Mt. Gede from
SAR back-scattering intensity data are
low due to out of scene area in ascending
data (Figure 2a). Based on this condition,
it can be interpreted that the hot springs at
H-zone might be independent to the heat
source beneath Mt. Salak and Mt. Gede.
Therefore, the other possibility out from
volcanism should be taken into account to
know the source of the geothermal system
such as fault derived- thermal and/or deep
reaching water through the fault system.
Further investigations and measurements
are necessary to correlate the subsurface
structures beneath H-zone and CFZ.
CONCLUSIONS
The Linear Features Density (LFD) based
on Geomorphologic and Structural Features
(GSF) of SAR data could be calculated ef-
fectively using a linear feature density from
Synthetic Aperture Radar (lifedSAR). A
10 × 10 grid size for multi-look factor 3×6
of ALOS PALSAR back-scattering inten-
sity data is plausible to map the density of
linear features for maps scale higher than
1:100.000. The LFD originated from ALOS
PALSAR back-scattering intensity provides
more detail density map than the simulated
SRTM 90 m. The error differences more
than 30% were located at a low elevation.
The high LFD with contour pattern at N
65° E was detected, consistent to the field
investigation of the sinistral strike-slip fault.
The hot springs associated with Cimandiri
Fault Zone (CFZ) are located at H-zone with
high LFD values. This zone was interpreted
68
as a discharge area of a geothermal system
which independent to the high LFD values
at Mt. Salak and Mt. Gede. Further inves-
tigation and study is necessary to know the
hydrothermal origin at CFZ.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors thank the National Institute of Advanced
Industrial Science and Technology-Japan (AIST-
Japan) for providing ALOS PALSAR data under a
collaborative research work with ITB.
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