Mount Merapi, on the Indonesian island of Java, continued emitting a plume of ash and steam on June 6, 2006. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) flying onboard NASA’s Terra satellite took this picture the same day. A red square marks the volcano’s summit; this “hotspot” is where the satellite sensor detected unusually warm surface temperatures. A gray plume emerges from the summit and blows westward away from the volcano, gradually dissipating as it goes. Clouds also appear in the region, distinguishable from the plume by their opaque white appearance.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data obtained from the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.
