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Volcanic cloud from Klyuchevskaya moves over Saskatchewan, North Dakota and Minnesota

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images, from 0146 UTC to 1606 UTC [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images (above) showed a remnant volcanic cloud from the 31 October Klyuchevskaya eruption as it moved over southern Saskatchewan, northern North Dakota and far northwestern Minnesota on 06 November 2023. The volcanic cloud exhibited brighter shades of orange-yellow in the SO2 RGB imagery, and darker shades of blue in the Ash RGB imagery — as seen in RGB comparisons over southern Saskatchewan (north of CWEN-CWVN) at 0301 UTC and northwestern North Dakota at 0801 UTC (below).

GOES-16 SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images at 0301 UTC, showing the volcanic cloud over far southern Saskatchewan (just north of CWEN-CWVN) [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images at 0801 UTC, showing the volcanic cloud over far southern Saskatchewan and far northwestern North Dakota (north of CWEN to south and southwest of CYEN) [click to enlarge]

The 0301 UTC and 0801 UTC image times corresponded to Volcanic Ash Advisories that were issued by the Montreal VAAC and the Washington VAAC (below).

Volcanic Ash Advisory and Forecast issued by the Montreal VAAC [click to enlarge]

Volcanic Ash Advisory and Forecast issued by the Washington VAAC [click to enlarge]

GOES-16 SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images at 1601 UTC (below) showed the volcanic cloud over far northwestern Minnesota (in the vicinity of KPKD).

GOES-16 SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images at 1601 UTC, showing the volcanic cloud over far northwestern Minnesota (in the vicinity of KPKD) [click to enlarge]

The qualitative appearance on SO2 and Ash RGB imagery was suggestive of a volcanic cloud that was a mixture of SO2 and ash (with more SO2 than ash) — and a radiometrically-retrieved Ash Loading product from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (below) indicated that the ash content of the cloud was relatively low (0.5-1.0 grams per square meter, violet).

Ash Loading product, from 0240 UTC to 1610 UTC [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Categories: GOES-16, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Volcanic activity