APPLICATION OF RADAR AND THERMAL IMAGE DATA FOR CHARACTERIZING THE DISTRIBUTION OF NICKEL LATERIT IN KOLAKA (SOUTHEAST SULAWESI)

• Main Author: Alrizki, Satriya
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Geologi, hidrologi & meteorologi
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/86970
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Environmental issues related to decarbonization to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially from the transportation sector, have encouraged several developed countries to accelerate the transition from fossil fuel vehicles to electric-based vehicles. This has triggered an increase in the electric vehicle industry, which has an impact on increasing demand for nickel as one of the main raw materials for electric vehicle batteries. As the world's largest producer of nickel laterite, Indonesia needs effective and efficient exploration methods to increase nickel laterite production in order to meet the global supply chain of electric vehicle battery raw materials. However, nickel laterite exploration in Indonesia has many challenges including; limited road access, rugged and dense terrain, dense vegetation and not all exploration areas have adequate geological or geochemical data. To overcome these problems, a combination of active remote sensing methods with ALOS PALSAR and passive remote sensing with sensors LANDSAT 8 TIRS is used. ALOS PALSAR data are able to provide physical parameters, derived from the Magnetic and dielectric from polarimetric SAR (mdPSAR) method and then combined with surface temperature parameters from LANDSAT 8 TIRS, to characterize the distribution of nickel laterite in Kolaka Regency, Pomalaa District, Southeast Sulawesi Province. Physical parameters from ALOS PALSAR, namely relative magnetic permeability and relative dielectric permittivity, are very important for detecting geological targets on the surface. Each type of geological feature can be distinguished based on the range of values of relative magnetic permeability and relative dielectric permittivity, so these parameters are used to characterize nickel laterite, especially the hematite mineral (Fe2O3) as a mineral characterizing the uppermost nickel laterite zone with low nickel content or called limonite. Surface temperature parameters are used to help characterize hematite (Fe2O3) minerals related to the degree of weathering of the host rock. The results of the correlation between radar image data values and field sample data values in characterizing the distribution of nickel laterite, have positive results with a coefficient of determination of 0,8. The limonite zone can generally be characterized by low magnetic permeability ? 21,04, low dielectric permittivity ? 0,53, low surface roughness ? 5,84 cm., and high surface temperature ? 21,71oC.