Today I was watching the 10-minute imagery from the Japanese Himawari geostationary weather satellite for the next eruption of Mt. Agung in Bali, Indonesia, and in the last hour or so there have been some distinct flashes in the nighttime imagery, which you can access here. These only show up in the nighttime imagery.

Here’s a recent example:

Flashes near Agung volcano in Bali (within blue circle) at 19:50 UTC, 27 November, 2017. These might be lightning from the ash cloud during an eruption. The city lights have been added from a separate satellite at a previous time.

Thinking this was just sensor noise, I examined other areas for similar flashes, and saw none. But after reviewing nighttime imagery over the last week, I saw similar behavior during the early stages of the eruption on Nov. 26. The flashes appear first, and then the ash cloud appears. Since the eruption plume does not show up in nighttime imagery until it has reached a sufficient altitude to be cold enough to show up in infrared sensors, it seems the lightning is more prevalent early in the eruption (assuming that’s what this is).

So, there might be a new eruption of Agung in progress. Last I checked the news, however, I saw nothing.

I’m also surprised that lightning would show up in geostationary satellite imagery of a volcanic eruption (except in a sensor designed to measure lightning, as is now carried on GOES-16). If I am wrong, please let me know.

via Roy Spencer, PhD.

http://ift.tt/2naayBD

November 27, 2017 at 05:14PM