Japanese satellite captures Taal Volcano unrest from space

The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA)'s satellite Himawari-8 captured Taal Volcano's phreatic activity from space, according to a tweet from National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth on Wednesday.

"In January 2020, the #Taal Volcano awoke from 43 years of quiet and spewed lava and ash, filling streets and skies of the Philippine island of Luzon with fine ash and volcanic gases," NASA Earth wrote.

In January 2020, the #Taal Volcano awoke from 43 years of quiet and spewed lava and ash, filling streets and skies of the Philippine island of Luzon with fine ash and volcanic gases. https://t.co/LMGf7c37Wl #TaalEruption pic.twitter.com/EXOXjFwCvD

— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) January 14, 2020

The time-lapse video, which showed the growth and spread of the volcanic plume, was taken from Sunday to Monday by the Japanese weather satellite.

"The volcano first unleashed a steam-driven explosion (known as a phreatic eruption) on January 12. In the early morning of January 13, eruptive activity increased and the volcano emitted a fountain of lava for about an hour and a half," wrote the NASA Earth Observatory in its website.

According to Michigan Tech volcanologist Simon Carn, the plume is probably comprised of mostly water droplets.

"There may be some volcanic ash but in such ‘wet’ plumes volcanic ash can be difficult to detect as the ash particles are often covered by liquid water," he said.

Recently, bolts of lightning were seen from a column of ash from Taal Volcano.

The NASA Earth Observatory also released a map of the country's stratospheric sulfur dioxide concentrations as of January 13. This was based on data collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration-NASA Suomi-NPP satellite.

According to the map, it appears that the sulfur dioxide concentrations have reached areas outside the country.

Carn observed that the Taal eruption could produce more sulfur dioxide in the coming days.

On Thursday, sulfur dioxide emissions were placed at 4,186 tonnes per day, which was higher than the average 1,686 tonnes per day recorded on Wednesday, according to the PHIVOLCS.

The PHIVOLCS also maintained Alert Level 4 in Taal Volcano, which means that a hazardous eruption is possible within hours to days.

At present, the Batangas and Cavite provinces were placed under "state of calamity" by their respective local governments. —Angelica Y. Yang/MGP, GMA News