Monitoring Mt. Etna

Mt. Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe. Since July 2001 the NEODAAS have provided data to the Italian government and the Hawaiian volcano observatory to monitor the volcano's activity. Figure 1 was captured during Mt. Etna's eruption in July 2001 and was acquired by one of NOAA's AVHRR sensors. You can see the crater in white and an ash plume travelling south east from the volcano. Data provided by NEODAAS was used to help plan the evacuation of the villages surrounding Etna. These data provided a valuable datasource for tracking the path of the pyroclastic flow. Figure 2 shows MODIS data for a subsequent eruption on 28 October 2002. In both cases selecting the image will show an enlarged version. The latest AVHRR temperature data for Mt. Etna can be seen in figure 3. Registered users can also view the data in the product browser.

Figure 2: AVHRR temperature data on 22 July 2001 15:48 UTC.

Figure 1: MODIS top-of-atmosphere scene on 28 October 2002 12:15 UTC.

Figure 3: The most recent temperature data showing Mt. Etna.

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