Satellite Image of Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō Lava Flows on the Coastal Plain
Courtesy USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory
This image was captured on Saturday, November 3, 2012 by the Advanced Land Image sensor aboard NASA’s Earth Observing 1 satellite. Although this is a false-color image, the color map has been chosen to mimic what the human eye would expect to see. Bright red pixels depict areas of very high termperatures, and show active or very recently active lava flows. The largest area of active surface flows this past week has been on the coastal plain, shown by the large area of red pixels near the ocean. These flows were 0.7 miles (1.1 km) from the water. A smaller area of breakouts is active near the top of the pali (cliff), shown by the small area of red pixels partly obscured by clouds in the center of the image. Lava within Pu‘u ‘Ō‘ō crater is also visible in this image.
The flow front is in a very remote area approximately 5 miles (8 km) from the end of Chain of Craters road. There have been reports of good night viewing from the County Viewing Area in Kalapana. More information can be found here
http://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm
