ACTIVE EFFUSIVE VOLCANISM CAN BE HAZARDOUS WITH THE POTENTIAL TO CAUSE THE LOSS OF PROPERTY ECONOMIC PROSPERITY AND IN SOME CASES EVEN LIFE. FOR EXAMPLE THE DYNAMICS OF LAVA FLOW ERUPTIONS EMPLACEMENT AND COOLING MUST BE INTERPRETED ACCURATELY IN ORDER TO MODEL THE DOWN-FLOW HAZARD POTENTIAL. CONVECTION AND COOLING OF ACTIVE LAVA LAKES PRODUCE LARGE AMOUNTS OF VOLCANIC GASES AND HAVE THE POTENTIAL FOR EXPLOSIVE EVENTS. OVER THE LAST FEW DECADES THERMAL INFRARED DATA HAVE BEEN INCREASINGLY USED AS A TOOL TO DETERMINE THE ERUPTION AND COOLING TEMPERATURES SPECTRAL EMISSIVITY AND SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS OF ACTIVE LAVA FLOWS AND LAKES. THESE THERMALLY-DERIVED PARAMETERS CAN (AND ARE) INTEGRATED INTO FLOW MODELS TO ESTIMATE AT-VENT DATA SUCH AS THE ERUPTION RATE AS WELL AS DISTAL INFORMATION INCLUDING FLOW PROPAGATION DISTRIBUTION AND PLUME CONCENTRATIONS. HOWEVER THE ACCURACY AND RELIABILITY OF THESE DERIVED PARAMETERS AT THE FLOW SCALE ARE COMMONLY LIMITED BY THE LOW SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL RESOLUTION OF CURRENTLY-AVAILABLE ORBITAL SENSORS. A NOVEL APPROACH IS PROPOSED HERE TO ACCURATELY CALCULATE THE TEMPERATURE AND THERMAL EMISSIVITY OF BASALTIC LAVA SURFACES USING A NEWLY-DEVELOPED GROUND-BASED MINIATURE MULTISPECTRAL THERMAL INFRARED (TIR) SYSTEM. THE TIME AND TEMPERATURE VARYING TIR EMISSIVITY SPECTRA WILL BE USED TO CORRECT AND INTERPRET OTHER PARAMETERS INCLUDING CHANGES IN LAVA STATE SURFACE GLASSINESS AND VESICULARITY AS WELL AS MINOR CHANGES IN COMPOSITION AND RHEOLOGY (VISCOSITY). THESE GROUND-BASED DATA WILL ALSO BE VALUABLE FOR QUANTIFYING THE EFFECT OF SPATIAL RESOLUTION DEGRADATION WHERE USING OTHER NASA SATELLITE- AND AIRBORNE-BASED INSTRUMENTS TO PERFORM THERMAL MODELING. THE OVERARCHING GOAL OF THE RESEARCH IS TO FIRST CALIBRATE THE GROUND-BASED SYSTEM AND FULLY AUTOMATE COLLECTION CORRECTION PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS OF TIR DATA. FINALLY THESE DATA WILL BE USED TO MODEL THE THERMAL AND TEMPORAL VARIABILITY OF THE TIR PARAMETERS OF ACTIVE LAVA FLOWS AND LAKES TO IMPROVE FLOW MODELING AND HAZARD PREDICTION.