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Eruptive period of Popocatépetl in Mexico

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-16 Ash RGB images (top) and Dust RGB images (bottom) [click to play MP4 animation]

GOES-16 (GOES-East) Ash RGB images and Dust RGB images (above) showed numerous volcanic plumes emanating from Popocatépetl in central Mexico during the 5-day period from 21 May – 25 May 2023. On 21 May, the airport at Puebla (MMPB) was temporarily closed, due to the potential adverse impact of volcanic ash to aviation (1731 UTC images) — and ash fall occurred within the city. At times the volcanic plumes were either partially or completely obscured by meteorological clouds, but for the most part the majority of eruptive events were well-sampled by the 5-minute GOES-16 imagery.

Even though the Ash RGB and Dust RGB products leverage the same ABI spectral bands, the various RGB components are scaled differently — which in this case led to the ash plumes exhibiting a more notable signature in the Dust RGB images (brighter shades of pink to magenta).

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