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Re-suspended ash from the Novarupta eruption in Alaska

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 Dust RGB and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 Dust RGB and “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and Dust Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images (above) showed the signature of a plume of re-suspended volcanic ash — originating from the region of the Novarupta volcano in Alaska — being transported southeastward across the Shelikof Strait toward Kodiak Island on 02 November 2020. The 1912 eruption of Novarupta left a very deep deposit of volcanic ash, which occasionally gets lofted by strong northwesterly terrain-enhanced winds in the Autumn months (before snowfall covers the ash). Another interesting aspect was a mesolow which had formed in the Shelikof Strait — it appeared as if some of the ash plume was becoming entrained into the western edge of the mesolow’s circulation. Note that Buoy 46077 was located near the center of this meslow, which led to frequent changes in the wind direction.

VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP viewed using RealEarth (below) provided 2 high-resolution snapshots of the ash plume. The tan-colored surface source region of the Novarupta ash was evident in these True Color images.

VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

VIIRS True Color RGB images from NOAA-20 and Suomi NPP [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-17, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, VIIRS