Sicily’s Mount Etna

Sicily’s Mount Etna

On July 21, 2006, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image as Sicily’s Mount Etna Volcano emitted a faint plume of volcanic ash that blew away from the summit, toward the southwest. Days earlier, the volcano sent lava into the air, according to a report from Telegraph.co.uk. While taking this picture, MODIS detected a hotspot, a place where surface temperatures were much higher than in the surrounding area. The hotspot is marked with a red outline in this image.

NASA image courtesy the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. The MODIS Rapid Response Team provides daily images of Mount Etna.