Hawaii Lava Threat Closely Monitored by NASA EO-1 Spacecraft

Kilauea volcano, Hawaii, has been in continuous eruption since 1983. Recently, lava flows from a vent close to the Pu'u O'o cone began cutting through dense vegetation and moving closer to inhabited areas. On Sept. 8, 2014, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing 1 spacecraft obtained this infrared image. Although there are clouds and smoke from burning vegetation, a line of red points delineate the path taken by the new lava flows. As always, the threat posed by these lava flows is being assessed and monitored by scientists at the United States Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory.

The EO-1 spacecraft is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. EO-1 is the satellite remote-sensing asset used by the EO-1 Volcano Sensor Web (VSW) developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, which is being used to monitor this, and other, volcanic eruptions around the world. Data are rapidly processed and made available to the Hawaiian Volcanoes Observatory to aid in their ceaseless monitoring of Hawaii's ongoing volcanic activity.