Activity at Montserrat’s Soufrière Hills Volcano continues to ebb and flow. Growth of the lava dome on the volcano’s summit has led to numerous pyroclastic flows, some of which nearly reached the ocean. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image on November 28, 2009, at 1:40 p.m. local time. Roughly 3 hours before, the Air Force Weather Agency reported an ash plume reaching to flight level 120 (3,700 meters) stretching west-northwest 130 nautical miles (240 kilometers) from the volcano.

1. Reference

2. Montserrat Volcano Observatory. (2009, December 1). News. Accessed December 1, 2009.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, Goddard Space Flight Center. The Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of this region. Caption by Robert Simmon.

Instrument: 

Aqua - MODIS