William Atkins
Friday, 26 June 2009 18:55
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 2
On June 12, 2009, the crew of the International Space Station just happened to be zipping overhead at just the moment the Sarychev Peak volcano erupted. The Russian volcano produced magnificent images now available on the Web from many different sources.
Three-dimensional photographs of the eruption taken from space, satellites movies of the plume, images of the volcanic cloud as it moves through Earth’s atmosphere, and other such fantastic images are available.
First, take a look at the
ISS020-E-009048 photograph taken by the Expedition 20 crewmembers as the International Space Station flew 220 miles over the Russian site on June 12th.
The NASA article, which accompanies the photograph states,
“This detailed photograph is exciting to volcanologists because it captures several phenomena that occur during the earliest stages of an explosive volcanic eruption.” More information is contained in the NASA Human Space Flight article."
The Sarychev Peak, which has not erupted in twenty years (1989) is part of the Kuril Islands, located northeast of Japan. It covered almost the entire Matua Island in the Kuril Islands of Russia.
Second, a technical movie (
SO2 vertical column [DU]) was taken by the GOME-2 sensor onboard the European MetOp-A satellite.
It shows millions of tons of the volcanic plume of sulfur dioxide from the eruption in the northern latitudes of Earth, crossing the North Atlantic Ocean and proceeding to Europe.
Page two continues with more images.
