Lava flows continue from Kilauea’s Lower East Rift Zone

By Scott Bachmeier • 18 June 2018

NOAA-20 VIIRS Day/Night Band (0.7 µm), Shortwave Infrared I04 (3.75 µm), Shortwave Infrared M13 (4.05 µm) and Longwave Infrared (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

Note how the central ribbon of hottest lava flow (which continues its active ocean entry) saturated the I04 3.75 µm image, causing a “wrap-around” effect to display cold brightness temperatures (white pixels) — although the M13 4.05 µm band has a lower spatial resolution, it saturates at much higher temperatures, and sensed brightness temperatures in the 480 to 557 K range. The Infrared images also showed evidence of steam clouds flowing southward over the adjacent offshore waters.

A webcam image from near Kapoho (PGcam) around the time of the NOAA-20 VIIRS images is shown below. The active Fissure 8 is near the center of the image.

Webcam image from near Kapoho [click to enlarge]

Categories: NOAA-20, VIIRS, Volcanic activity