See a typhoon swirl and a volcano erupt in same striking view from space
File this one under "nature is metal."
Satellites can see the big picture of what's happening down on Earth. Japanese weather satellite Himawari-8 spotted an unusual pairing over the weekend when it caught sight of Typhoon Hagupit and the eruption of a volcano on Nishinoshima Island at the same time.
The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University tweeted a GIF of the action on Monday.
Typhoon Hagupit swirls as Nishinoshima erupts.
— CIRA (@CIRA_CSU) August 3, 2020
Seen in GeoColor: https://t.co/9zYm9ankJj. pic.twitter.com/yWBJqgua2f
The typhoon is easy to spot. It's the rotating mass of clouds to the left. You can find the brown-gray volcanic eruption trailing over the ocean near the upper-right corner. Feel free to dive more deeply into the archived satellite imagery through CIRA's online tool.
Hagupit is a tropical cyclone that's threatening China with high winds and heavy rains. NASA's own satellite views "showed a thick band of thunderstorms that resembled a giant tail, spiraling into the powerful storm."
NASA has been monitoring the volcanic island of Nishinoshima since it first appeared in the Pacific Ocean in 2013. "Since mid-June 2020, it has been going through a vigorous growth spurt," NASA's Earth Observatory said in a July update.
We've seen some sobering cyclone views and wild images of volcanoes from space, but the combination of the two is a rare and striking visual.