NASA has published images taken by Landsat 9 and Aqua satellites. They show the eruption of the Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano in Indonesia, which led to the cancellation of many flights.
The Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano is located on the Indonesian island of Flores. After nearly two decades of quiescence, it began erupting again in December 2023. A particularly intense period of activity occurred in November 2024. It included several explosive eruptions that produced deadly pyroclastic flows, ashfall, and raised plumes of ash into the air, disrupting air traffic in the region.
Landsat 9 satellite image taken on November 13, 2024, shows the volcanic plume produced by Lewotobi Laki-Laki. Its height was 1,200 meters, which is relatively small compared to the previous day. Thus, on November 7, the ash rose to a height of 17,000 meters, and on November 9 — to 15,000 meters.
The MODIS spectroradiometer on the Aqua satellite has captured an image of the remnants of one of these high-flying, widely scattered plumes of ash over the island of Flores. The image was taken on November 9.
The aviation community is closely monitoring the movement of volcanic ash as it can cause damage to airplane windshields, airframes and wings. Sometimes the ash caused engines to fail. This is exactly what happened in 1989 with KLM 867. It flew through a dense cloud of volcanic ash, causing the Boeing 747 to fail all four engines. After losing more than 4,000 meters of altitude, the crew was still able to restart the engines and landed the aircraft safely at the airport.
After this incident, aviation safety experts began to pay much more attention to eruptions. Ash plumes whose height exceeds 10 kilometers are considered particularly dangerous. In April 2010, almost all European countries interrupted air travel for several days due to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull.
The eruption of the Lewotobi Laki-Laki volcano also led to massive cancellations of both internal and international flights, including flights to the island of Bali, a popular destination for foreign travelers. Several airports were temporarily closed after the eruption on November 4. By November 14, some had partly reopened.
Provided by Earthobservatory
