On January 22, 2020, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of resuspended ash near Taal Volcano island. According to the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, strong low-level winds lifted ash lying on the volcano, and sent it streaming southwest toward the town of Dacanlao. Following an eruption in early January 2020, Taal remains on a Level 4 alert, with a hazardous eruption still possible.
Astronaut photograph ISS061-E-138244 was acquired on January 22, 2020, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 210 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 61 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed. The International Space Station Program supports the laboratory as part of the ISS National Lab to help astronauts take pictures of Earth that will be of the greatest value to scientists and the public, and to make those images freely available on the Internet. Additional images taken by astronauts and cosmonauts can be viewed at the NASA/JSC Gateway to Astronaut Photography of Earth. Text by Kasha Patel.
