Karymsky eruption on Kamchatka
Imagery from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Monitoring website (link) shows derived Ash loading (above) from the 3 November eruption of Karymsky on the Kamchatka peninsula. The website identified an eruption beginning around 0720 UTC, with an obvious eruptive plume by 0740 UTC. In addition to Ash Loading, shown above, Ash Height (click here for an 8-h mp4 animation) was also derived; a still image from 1110 UTC, below, shows two separate plumes, one around 6 km (indicated by the white arrow), one closer to 10-12 km (indicated by the magenta arrow).
In addition to quantitative estimates of ash, Himawari-8 (and GOES-R and GK2A) channels can be combined in RGBs to highlight qualitatitely regions where ash is likely. The animation below (from Scott Bachmeier) shows the Ash RGB. (Click here for a Quick Guide on this RGB)
A tip of the (winter) Hat to Nathan Eckstein, NWS AAWU in Anchorage, for alerting us to this event.
Update: Nate Eckstein sent along the following Himawari imagery time-matched with VIIRS SO2 Index imagery provided by Carl Dierking at GINA. The 1300 UTC RGB imagery suggests that the north (and east, given the projection) side of the plume is rich in ash whereas the southern (and western) part of the plume contains more SO2. The Suomi NPP VIIRS SO2 Index product (more information on that product is here) tells a similar story: most of the SO2 from this eruption is confined to the southwestern portion of the plume.
Imagery from later (0050 UTC on 4 November), below, tells a similar story. The SO2 aspect of the plume can be detected in the False Color Imagery below in the upper left — the region of bright yellow to the south of the arcing red feature that is the ash cloud. Ash/Dust Cloud Height (below, bottom left) keys in on that arced feature, and the SO2-rich feature is mostly ignored in the figure. In contrast, the SO2 index product, below on the right, from NOAA-20 VIIRS data at 0050 UTC, shows a strong signal of SO2 — but the arcing ash cloud is barely apparent!
