Redoubt Eruption - As Seen From Space

As many of you probably know by now, Alaska's Redoubt volcano has been erupting for several days now. If you're interested in the details, head over to new SciBling Erik Klemetti's Eruptions blog. If you're interested in the latest in really cool pictures, here's one for you:

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(Source. Click for full size version)

The picture comes from the Alaska Volcano Observatory (aka place where "something called volcano monitoring" gets done). The ash plume from the eruption is the clearly visible dark smudge near the center of the picture. The image was taken by a weather satellite in geostationary orbit over equatorial Asia.

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Very cool. I can't decide whether this picture makes me think 'Wow, this is huge, you can see it from space', or "Wow, this giant event is barely a blip on the radar from the global point of view"!