Earth ID: 10837

Eyjafjallajokull's Plume

Story by Patrick Lynch | Visualizations by Horace Mitchell Released on October 11, 2011

A silica-rich plume composed of ash, smoke and steam rose into the atmosphere over southern Iceland during the series of eruptions by Eyjafjallajokull volcano in spring 2010. Weary travelers were stranded at airports as air traffic across the Atlantic and over parts of Europe came to a halt. A European geostationary satellite, which orbits Earth above a single point, tracked the movement of the ash clouds as westerly winds carried them high above the ocean and toward northern Europe. Meanwhile, NASA's CALIPSO satellite measured the height and thickness of the material ejected into the atmosphere using its lidar instrument and infrared sensors. Together, the satellites created an unprecedented view of the eruption's aftermath. Watch the visualization below to see the movement and 3-D structure of the ash clouds released by Eyjafjallajokull volcano from May 6-8, 2010.

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Horace Mitchell (NASA/GSFC)

Visualizer/Animator:
Cindy Starr (Global Science and Technology, Inc.)

Video Editor:
Victoria Weeks (HTSI)

Producer:
Michael Starobin (HTSI)

Lead Scientists:
Charles Trepte (NASA/LaRC)
Jason Trackett (SSAI)
Michael J. Pavolonis (NOAA/NESDIS/STAR)
Justin Sieglaff (Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies)
Zhaoyan Liu (National Institute of Aerospace)

Lead Writer:
Patrick Lynch (Wyle Information Systems)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10837

Keywords:
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Earth