GOES SATELLITE OBSERVATIONS OF CERRO AZUL ERUPTION

SEPTEMBER 1998

Click here for latest GOES image of eruption

Researchers at the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hawaii have been monitoring a number of active or potentially active volcanoes using the GOES geostationary satellites. About once every 30 minutes, a GOES 8 image is acquired for the Galapagos Islands. At 18:46 UT (12:46 local Galapagos time on September 15,1998) a large increase in radiance was detected by the automated GOES thermal alert system. Here we show our prelimary compilation of data from the first 3 days of the eruption, along with some supplemental data sets that show the context of Cerro Azul.

NOTE: We provide this information for people interested in the latest eruption of Cerro Azul. However, our analysis of the observations is only just beginning and so the materials provided here should not be used for hazard mitigation planning or assessment.

A total of 93 thermal images and 55 visible (daytime) images have been collected over the period 18:46 UT on September 15th to 24:00 UT on September 17th.

The members of the GOES Team at UH are: Luke Flynn, Eric Pilger, Andrew Harris, Chris Okubo, Harold Garbeil and Pete Mouginis-Mark. For further information about our GOES Volcano Monitoring effort, please contact flynn@pgd.hawaii.edu

GOES IMAGES (Color and black/white for first day)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION (Shuttle image, location map, shaded relief image, slope map, observation logs based on GOES data).