[SatNews] The lava is hot enough to glow in near-infrared light...

The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image of the ongoing eruption at Iceland’s Holuhraun lava field on September 16, 2014. The lava is hot enough to glow in near-infrared light, so it appears red in the image, which displays near-infrared, red, and green wavelengths as red, green, and blue respectively.

For daily updates about the eruption, visit the Icelandic Met Office. website. Find a gallery of satellite imagery of the eruption here.

References

• Global Volcanism Program (2014) Bardarbunga. Accessed September 26, 2014.
• Icelandic Met Office (2014) Bardarbunga: updated information. Accessed September 26, 2014.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2014, March 4) Why is that Forest Red and that Cloud Blue? How to Interpret a False-Color Satellite Image. Accessed September 26, 2014.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using data from NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team. Caption by Adam Voiland. 

Instrument(s): 
Terra - ASTER