A volcano that erupted several days ago in the Kuril Islands, Russia,continues to spew a large volume of ash into the atmosphere. The ash cloud,which is about 5 miles high into the atmosphere, is over 1,000 miles long andis in the direct flight path from Vancouver, BC, to several locations in Asia.Pilots are instructed to avoid ash clouds, since they can cause engineproblems. Many airlines have been forced to cancel or take longer routes totheir destinations.
The image below, courtesy of NASA's MODIS, shows one of the actual ash clouderuption from the Sarychev Peak volcano. The brown area on the right side ofthe image, which almost looks like an ugly mole, is the newly erupted ashcloud. MODIS superimposed the island of Ostrov Matua, which is where thevolcano is located, over the ash cloud.
Story by AccuWeather.com senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson.
