In the South Pacific Ocean east of Australia, the 83 islands that make up the Vanuatu nation are dotted with countless craters from active and extinct volcanoes. Among the most dangerous is the almost-permanently active Ambrym Volcano. In this pair of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) captured by the Terra satellite on April 27, 2004, a large plume of volcanic ash is blowing westward from the volcano, which appears at the center right edge. The plume is mixing with clouds, and is more apparent as a bright, reddish orange color in the false-color image (below). The large image is the same spatial resolution (level of detail), but shows a wider area.
Image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA-GSFC
