Several volcanoes on northeastern Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula have been active in February 2005. In mid-month, the peninsula’s most active volcano, Klyuchevskaya, spilled lava down the mountain’s snow-covered flanks, melting a large portion of a glacier. Then, on February 28, the Shiveluch Volcano belched out a large cloud of ash, which spread westward over the peninsula toward the Sea of Okhotsk, which separates the peninsula from the mainland.

These colorful images use visible light and infrared observations from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite to distinguish snow and ice (red) from clouds (white or peach). Snow-free vegetation is green, while water is dark blue, or nearly black. Ash is light blue.

The high-resolution image provided above is the February 28, 2005, image at a spatial resolution of 500 meters per pixel. The MODIS Rapid Response System provides these scenes and others at additional resolutions.

Image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center