This blog post was written by a post-doc at NASA SPoRT and she talks about how the RGB Dust product can be used to detect volcanic ash!
Author: Emily Berndt
Mount Pavlof, one of Alaska’s most active volcanoes, has been erupting since last week. The plume has caused some disruption of flights and ash fallout in nearby communities. The Alaska Volcano Observatory has been closely monitoring it’s activity (http://www.avo.alaska.edu/activity/Pavlof.php). The steam, ash, and gas plume is continually created as hot lava contacts snow and ice. The steam, ash, and gas plume has occasionally reached up to 20,000 ft and has been carried downwind as much as 100 km to the northeast, east, and southeast before dissipating. This graphic from the Alaska Volcano Observatory shows the location of Mount Pavlof within the Aleutian Island Chain.
The plume can be seen in the VIIRS RGB Dust product. Let’s first look at the VIIRS true color product. Inside the red circle, you can see a faint brown plume, but it’s not easy to see (click on the images).
Now take a…
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