CIMSS Satellite Blog

GOES-16 Upper-level (6.2 µm, top), Mid-level (6.9 µm, center) and Low-level (7.3 µm, bottom) Water Vapor images [click to play animation | MP4]

Following several days of unrest, there was a moderate eruption of Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala beginning around 0630 UTC on 19 November 2018. GOES-16 (GOES-East) Upper-level (6.2 µm), Mid-level (6.9 µm) and Low-level (7.3 µm) Water Vapor images (above) displayed a signature of the volcanic plume, which drifted slowly northward and eastward for several hours. Since the 7.3 µm spectral band is also affected by SO2 absorption, the longer-lasting signal in the Low-level Water Vapor imagery suggests the plume contained SO2 as well as ash.

A GOES-16 multiispectral Ash/Dust Cloud Height product from the NOAA/CIMSS Volcanic Cloud Monitoring site (below) indicated that the ash reached a maximum height of 7-8 km in the general vicinity of the summit between 1100-1200 UTC. Most of the ash was seen drifting westward at heights of 1-5 km.

GOES-16 Ash/Dust Cloud Height product [click to play animation | MP4]

The 1400 UTC METAR from San Jose, Guatemala (MGSJ) reported a surface visibility of 5 miles with Volcanic Ash in the vicinity (VCVA) as the current weather type (below).

GOES-16 Split Window difference (10.3-12.3 µm) image, with METAR surface reports [click to enlarge]

from CIMSS Satellite Blog http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/blog/archives/30764