{"id":68449,"date":"2026-01-12T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=68449"},"modified":"2026-01-13T23:49:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T23:49:05","slug":"episode-40-of-the-ongoing-eruption-of-kilauea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/68449","title":{"rendered":"Episode 40 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea"},"content":{"rendered":"

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GOES-18 False Color RGB images, from 1631-2316 UTC on 12 January [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>A combination of 10-minute Full Disk scan and 5-minute PACUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West)<\/em> False Color RGB images from the NOAA\/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring<\/strong><\/a> site (above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the signature of a volcanic cloud following the eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawai`i — which became apparent after 1831 UTC on 12 January 2026, and soon thereafter began moving south-southeast. (This was Episode 40 of the ongoing Kilauea eruption; Episode 1 began on 23 December 2024<\/strong><\/a>.) Since this False Color RGB product uses the ABI<\/strong><\/a> 8.5 \u00b5m spectral band (which is sensitive to SO2<\/sub> absorption<\/strong><\/a>) in its green component, shades of cyan were indicative of a high concentration of SO2 <\/sub>within the volcanic cloud.<\/p>\n

A plot of rawinsonde data from Hilo (below)<\/strong><\/em> indicated that NW winds were present between the altitudes of 2.2-4.4 km (the summit of Kilauea is at an elevation of 1.25 km), which were responsible for the south-southeast transport the volcanic cloud. According to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory<\/strong><\/a>, the volcanic plume rose to altitudes of 4 km over the eruption site, before moving southeast at higher altitudes.<\/p>\n

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Plot of rawinsonde data from Hilo, Hawaii at 0000 UTC on 13 January [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>GOES-18 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere<\/strong><\/a> site (below)<\/strong><\/em> provided a view of the volcanic cloud that initially developed at 1816 UTC and later moved south-southeast of the Big Island. In addition, an overshooting top was frequently seen directly over the eruption site. A larger-scale animation that extends to sunset is available here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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5-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images, from 1726-2351 UTC on 12 January [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared images (below)<\/strong><\/em> displayed the thermal signature of lava fountaining and lava flows during Kilauea’s eruption (which was briefly masked by clouds at times).<\/p>\n

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5-minute GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) images, from 1721 UTC on 12 January to 0416 UTC on 13 January [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>As early as 1836 UTC on 12 January (14 minutes after eruption onset<\/strong><\/a>), the thermal signature exhibited a 3.9 \u00b5m brightness temperature of 137.88\u00baC (below)<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0\u2014 which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI<\/strong><\/a> Band 7 detectors. This saturation temperature was intermittently seen until the eruption episode ended at 0404 UTC on 13 January<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Cursor sample of the maximum GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared (3.9 \u00b5m) brightness temperature over the Kilauea eruption site at 1836 UTC on 12 January [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A combination of 10-minute Full Disk scan and 5-minute PACUS Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) False Color RGB images from the NOAA\/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (above) showed the signature of a volcanic cloud following the eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawai`i — which became apparent after 1831 UTC on 12 January 2026, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":68451,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,45,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goes-18","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-volcanic-activity"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68449"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68481,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68449\/revisions\/68481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}