New lava flows & ash/SO2 plumes from Mount Etna

by Jochen Kerkmann and HansPeter Roesli (EUMETSAT)

According to Volcanodiscovery , following a rapid increase in tremors starting at 07:24 (local time) in the morning, the south-east crater began to emit lava fountains and ash/SO₂ plumes until around 9 am.

Meteosat-8 captured the ash/SO₂ cloud and its movement/expansion towards the north-east. In the beginning, the ash signal dominated the RGB composite (see Ash RGB at 05:45 UTC ), but later, as the volcanic cloud moved towards Greece, the SO₂ signal became more and more visible (the sulfur dioxide cloud is shown in green colour, see Ash RGB at 11:45 UTC ). Luckily, at 11:47 UTC the AIRS instrument on the Aqua platform also captured the SO₂ plume over Western Greece (see AIRS retrieval , source: F. Prata). A comparison with MSG shows a very good agreement of the position and the size of the SO₂ cloud (see comparison ).

Meteosat-8 Ash RGB Composite

29 March 2007, 07:00 UTC
RGB Composite (Ash RGB)
IR12.0–IR10.8, IR10.8–IR8.7, IR10.8
Full Resolution
Interpretation
Animation (05:00–13:15 UTC)

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Other Meteosat-8 RGB Images