Episode 55 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawai’i
Episode 55 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea (Episode 1 began on 23 December 2024) commenced at 1319 UTC on 17 October 2026. 5-minute PACUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) SO2 RGB and Ash RGB images (above) showed the SO2 (lighter shades of green) produced by the eruption, most of which drifted to the southwest — although a narrow filament was also seen drifting eastward and southeastward from the eruption site. The Ash RGB imagery did briefly exhibit a signature of ash (muted shades of magenta) within part of the volcanic cloud — for example, northeast of Pahala at 1501 UTC. Episode 55 then ended nearly 6 hours later, at 1903 UTC.
GOES-18 CIMSS Natural Color RGB images (below) revealed a notable amount of “vog” (volcanic fog) produced by this eruption, which drifted southwest along the coast before moving over open water south of the Big Island.
GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared images (below) showed the thermal signature of the lava fountaining during Episode 55.
Beginning at 1401 UTC, the thermal signature exhibited a 3.9 µm brightness temperature of 137.88ºC (below) — which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors. This saturation temperature persisted for much of the eruption period.
