Earth  ID: 30047

Thermal Sensor Lights Up from Volcanic Heat

Released on June 20, 2013
As the Landsat Data Continuity Mission—now renamed Landsat-8—flew over Indonesia’s Flores Sea on April 29, 2013, the satellite’s Operational Land Imager (OLI) and Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIRS) captured these images of the Paluweh volcano spewing ash. The OLI captured the natural-color image that shows the white cloud of ash drifting northwest over the darker forests and water, while TIRS detected thermal infrared radiation, or heat, from the scene. The TIRS image reveals a hot spot (bright white) where lava was oozing out near the top of the volcano, surrounded by cooler ash clouds (dark gray). The image pair illustrates the value of having both OLI and TIRS on Landsat-8 and highlights TIRS ability to detect very small changes in temperature over small distances—down to about a tenth of a degree Celsius.
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This aniamtion reveals a hot spot (bright white) where lava was oozing out near the top of the volcano, surrounded by cooler ash clouds (dark gray).

For More Information

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=81067

Credits

Marit Jentoft-Nilsen (Global Science and Technology, Inc.): Animator
Mark Malanoski (GST): Project Support
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

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https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/30047

Mission:
Landsat

Data Used:
Landsat-8/OLI/Band Combination 2,3,4 also referred to as: True Color
Observed Data
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Landsat-8/TIRS
Observed Data
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Keywords:
SVS >> HDTV
SVS >> Hyperwall
NASA Science >> Earth
SVS >> Presentation