{"id":72708,"date":"2026-10-17T22:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T22:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72708"},"modified":"2026-10-18T03:43:20","modified_gmt":"2026-10-18T03:43:20","slug":"episode-55-of-the-ongoing-eruption-of-kilauea-on-the-big-island-of-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72708","title":{"rendered":"Episode 55 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea on the Big Island of Hawai&#8217;i"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_g18_so2RGB_ashRGB_HI.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>5-minute GOES-18 SO<sub>2<\/sub> RGB and Ash RGB images, from 1246-2101 UTC on 17 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Episode 55 of the ongoing eruption of Kilauea (Episode 1 began on <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/62231\">23 December 2024<\/a><\/strong>) commenced at 1319 UTC on 17 October 2026. 5-minute PACUS Sector GOES-18 <em>(GOES-West)<\/em> <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb.cira.colostate.edu\/training\/visit\/quick_guides\/Quick_Guide_SO2_RGB.pdf\">SO<sub>2<\/sub> RGB<\/a><\/strong> and <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/rammb2.cira.colostate.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/GOES_Ash_RGB-1.pdf\">Ash RGB<\/a><\/strong> images <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed the SO<sub>2<\/sub> (lighter shades of green) produced by the eruption, most of which drifted to the southwest &#8212; 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 &#8212; for example, northeast of Pahala at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_1501utc_g18_ashRGB_HI.png\">1501 UTC<\/a><\/strong>. Episode 55 then ended nearly 6 hours later, at 1903 UTC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GOES-18 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/ABIQuickGuide_CIMSSRGB_v2.pdf\">CIMSS Natural Color RGB<\/a><\/strong> images <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> revealed a notable amount of &#8220;<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/vog.ivhhn.org\/what-vog\">vog<\/a><\/strong>&#8221; (volcanic fog) produced by this eruption, which drifted southwest along the coast before moving over open water south of the Big Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_g18_naturalColorRGB_HI.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>5-minute CIMSS Natural Color RGB images, from 1621-2101 UTC on 17 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared images <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> showed the thermal signature of the lava fountaining during Episode 55.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_g18_swir_HI.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>5-minute GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared images, from 1246-2101 UTC on 17 October<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Beginning at 1401 UTC, the thermal signature exhibited a 3.9 \u00b5m brightness temperature of 137.88\u00baC <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em> \u2014 which is the saturation temperature of GOES-18 ABI Band 7 detectors. This saturation temperature persisted for much of the eruption period.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_1401utc_g18_swir_saturation.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/10\/261017_1401utc_g18_swir_saturation.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>GOES-18 Shortwave Infrared image at 1401 UTC on 17 October [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8212; although [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72711,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114,45,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72708","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\/72708","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=72708"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72721,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72708\/revisions\/72721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}