Hot N Cold: Villarrica Volcano

In English Sentinel-2 snow-ice

Simon Gascoin, 9 octobre 2017

Villarrica volcano is one of the most active volcanoes in the Chilean Andes. A colleague of mine (Esteban Alonso) told me that last week he went ski touring up there and when he reached the summit he could see the bubbling lava in the bottom of the crater, and could even feel its heat…

 Sentinel-2 also feels the heat! The lava in the crater is warm enough to emit shortwave infrared radiation:

Sentinel-2 SWIR composite 2017-09-16 (click to enlarge)

The situation in the crater remains quite stable all over the year in contrast to the snow cover, as shown in this time series of cloud-free images from Sep 2016 to Sep 2017:

Time series of Sentinel-2 cloud-free images from Sep 2016 to Sep 2017

Related links:

Villarrica Volcano, Chile on ESA website.

Hot N Cold by Katy Perry.

Plus d'actualités

Pléiades © CNES 2026 Distribution Airbus DS

Clear-sky Pléiades acquisition of the Rasuwa landslide source area

After many attempts, CNES’s Pléiades satellites finally captured a clear-sky view of the source area of the devastating flood in Nepal. The stereoscopic acquisition enables the generation of a high-resolution DEM and consequently a geometrically accurate orthorectified image. Although I’m not involved in the scientific analysis, I could not resist taking a closer look at […]

New clear-sky image of the Rasuwa rock-ice avalanche

On 08 Sep 2026, Sentinel-2 acquired a clear-sky image near the release area of the landslide which caused the catastrophic flood in Nepal. Using this image and a pre-event digital elevation model (Berthier 2026) we can analyze the upper part of the avalanche runout profile. The block of rock and ice was released near 5120 […]

How long is the cooling effect of a cloud shadow ?

How long does it take for the cannon barrel to cool down after firing a shell ? Fernand Raynaud => This quote is from a famous old French funny sketch by Fernand Raynaud, which was based on a question in a French manual for soldiers: the sketch is rather long, so I’ll give you the […]

Rechercher