Impressive Visible Satellite Image

Check out this great visible satellite image captured over Iceland early Friday morning. It’s not often that we find once image displaying clouds, volcanic ash, and even the aurora borealis.

The blue arrows point to regular cloud features we are used to observing on a satellite image. The red arrow points to a bright white area where the satellite is sensing hot lava from the Bardarbunga volcano responsible for the volcano tornado last week.

The light blue arrows actually point out a unique feature being detected. This is actually the aurora borealis, otherwise known as the Northern Lights. This particular satellite was fitted with a DNB sensor that can detect very dim light signals. This satellite image is sensing the visible light emitted as solar particles enter the Earth’s atmosphere.