A hazy layer of vog—volcanic fog—overlies Malekula and a few other islands of the Vanuatu archipelago in this natural-color satellite image. The source of the vog is Ambrym, a volcano in the southeast (lower right) corner of this scene. The haze extends over the Coral Sea several hundred kilometers to the northwest. Ambrym emits sulfur dioxide—the gas responsible for the formation of vog— intermittently. (Kilauea Volcano has recently affected the residents of Hawaii with similar vog emissions.) According to the Volcano World website, past emissions of sulfur dioxide by Ambrym were intense enough to create acid rain capable of burning inhabitants of the island.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite acquired this natural-color image on October 6, 2009.
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NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. The Rapid Response Team provides twice-daily images of this region. Caption by Robert Simmon.
