Start Date: End Date: Published Date Data Date
Data acquired August 9, 2009 720 x 480 JPEG
Data acquired August 9, 2009 2276 x 1820 759 KB - JPEG
The same day that Rabaul Volcano released a plume, Bagana Volcano, roughly 400 kilometers (250 miles) to the southeast, on the island of Bougainville, also sent a plume of ash and/or steam toward the northeast. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture on August 9, 2009. The volcanic plume is faint in this true-color image, and the volcano’s summit is obscured by clouds, but the plume clearly blows away from Bougainville and over the Pacific Ocean.
Bagana is a lava cone that reaches an altitude of 1,750 meters (5,741 feet) above sea level. Volcanic activity at Banaga is frequent but non-explosive, usually producing lava that fills a lake at the volcano’s summit. Hardened lava flows also appear on the volcano’s flanks.
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center. Caption by Michon Scott.
Published August 10, 2009 Data acquired August 9, 2009