January 15, 2022
A number of Earth-observing satellites gathered data throughout and after the powerful blast.
Among the most potent volcanic eruptions in years has actually wiped out a small, uninhabited South Pacific island called Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai. Damage evaluations are still continuous, however initial reports show that communities in the island country of Tonga have actually taken heavy damage from volcanic ash and a tsunami brought on by the eruption.
The volcano had actually sporadically erupted numerous times given that 2009. The most recent burst of activity began in late December 2021, with periodic ejections of ash, steam, and tephra. An unusually large blast rocked the volcano on January 13, 2022, however it was an even bigger explosion on January 15 that produced a climatic shock wave and tsunami that circumnavigated the world.
Several Earth-observing satellites collected information during and after the eruption. Researchers connected with NASAs Disasters program are now collecting imagery and information, and they are sharing it with colleagues worldwide, including catastrophe response companies.
The Advanced Baseline Imager on NOAAs Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17 (GOES-17) captured the natural-color images for the animation above between 5 and 8 p.m. local time (04:00 to 07:00 Universal Time) on January 15. (NASA builds and launches the GOES series of satellites for NOAA.) The eruption produced what volcanologists call an umbrella cloud, and crescent-shaped bow shock waves rippled through the plume as it broadened up and external over the South Pacific.
January 16, 2022
The 2nd image, based on information collected on January 16 by the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) objective, reveals ash and gas from the eruption increasing to an altitude of 31 kilometers (19 miles). CALIPSO is a joint objective of NASA and Frances National Centre for Space Studies (CNES).
The trio of natural-color images listed below shows ash, pumice, and sediment blemishing the water around the eruption site. The images were acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASAs Aqua satellite.
January 7– 17, 2022
Preliminary imagery from commercial satellites and European radar imagers recommend that extremely little of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haapai still stands above the water line. The volcanic island initially rose out of the water in December 2014.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Joshua Stevens and Lauren Dauphin, using CALIPSO information from NASA/CNES, MODIS and VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership, and GOES imagery courtesy of NOAA and the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS).
The most current burst of activity started in late December 2021, with periodic ejections of ash, steam, and tephra. An uncommonly large blast rocked the volcano on January 13, 2022, but it was an even larger surge on January 15 that produced a climatic shock wave and tsunami that took a trip around the world.
The Advanced Baseline Imager on NOAAs Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 17 (GOES-17) captured the natural-color images for the animation above between 5 and 8 p.m. regional time (04:00 to 07:00 Universal Time) on January 15. The eruption produced what volcanologists call an umbrella cloud, and crescent-shaped bow shock waves rippled through the plume as it expanded up and outside over the South Pacific.
