A few episodes back, we brought you the story of how a NASA satellite spotted an erupting sharkcano: an underwater volcano in the Solomon Islands that is (was) filled with sharks.

Today, we have news of another volcano behaving badly. This time it is the Nyiragongo volcano in the Democratic Republic of Congo. No one has eyes on all the seas or the right perspective into the lava-spewing mountains that pox our planet. However, new research published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth uses synthetic aperture radar data from satellites to measure the level of the lava lake at the peak of the mountain.

All of this data collected can now be used to predict volcanic hazards to the region. So while the total population of satellites may seem to be becoming overwhelming, science can use every mission we can get, and even as an amateur astronomer, I’m still grateful for the telescopes that point down.

More Information

Tracking Lava Lake Levels at an African Volcano from Space (Eos)

“Intra-Crater Eruption Dynamics at Nyiragongo (D.R. Congo), 2002–2021,” Julien Barrière et al., 2022 April 1, JGR Solid Earth