Since its eruption in early June, several NASA satellites have captured images of the ash plume from the eruption of the Chilean Volcano called Puyehue-Cordn Caulle and have tracked it around the world. NASA has collected them in the NASA Goddard FLICKR image gallery that shows the progression of the plume around the southern hemisphere.
The Puyehue-Cordn Caulle Volcanic Complex includes the Puyehue volcano, the Cordn Caulle rift zone and the Cordillera Nevada caldera.
One of the instruments that provided daily imagery of the ash plume is called the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that flies on both NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites. Other satellites have provided images and animations of the plume such as the GOES-11 satellite, which is operated by NOAA and whose images and animations are created by the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
The new NASA Goddard FLICKR image gallery contains a series of MODIS images from the day the Puyehue volcano erupted on June 4 to June 14.The images are shown in date order in the gallery and show the ash plume circling the southern hemisphere.
The image gallery focuses on the data from the MODIS instrument on Aqua and Terra to provide continuity and ease of identification of the ash plume. The plume can appear differently to other NASA satellites that look at the atmosphere using other parts of the spectrum other than visible and infrared light.
The gallery begins on June 4, 2011 when a fissure opened in the Puyehue-Cordn Caulle Volcanic Complex. The MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured a natural-color image that showed the ash 45,000 feet (14,000 meters) high. As the plume shot up and blew southeast toward Argentina, heavier particles fell to the ground. According to the Buenos Aires Herald, the border town of Bariloc, Argentina reported as much as a foot (30 centimeters) of ash on the ground.
<| Contact: Rob Gutro Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov 443-858-1779 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Source:Eurekalert |