Maps · Volcanoes

Reading Indonesia’s volcanic skies

Replaying four days of Anak Krakatau satellite images, ash advisories and airport reports on a shared timeline.

The replay starts at 13:30 WIB on 5 September, the earliest recovered advisory. Press play or drag the clock to compare two views of the same Himawari-9 scan.

Fig. 01 · Anak Krakatau, 4–8 September 2026 — satellite scans, Darwin VAAC advisories and official reports on one clock

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Satellite images

Each panel shows the nearest scan to the selected time and clears if none is available within seven minutes. Ten of 589 time slots are missing; nothing is interpolated.

The infrared view shows brightness temperature. Cold areas can be high cloud tops—even above a hot vent—and weather clouds can look similar. JMA explains infrared imagery here.

Ash RGB combines four infrared bands to help distinguish cloud types; it does not measure ash concentration.

Ash advisories

Line styles distinguish observed, estimated and forecast positions. Initial positions remain for an hour; forecasts appear only at their target time. Outlines are snapshots, not accumulated ashfall, and their absence does not mean the air was clear.

Airport reports

The airport track distinguishes scheduled closures and expiry from confirmed reopenings; gaps remain unknown.

Locations use official transport-ministry coordinates. BMKG’s “Atungbusu” refers to Atung Bungsu Airport in Pagar Alam. Its two reports name different sets of eight airports.

Fig. 02 · Six volcanoes, one scale — the latest retained advisory for each, summit at the centre

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Other volcanoes

Above are Darwin VAAC sequences for Merapi, Semeru, Lewotolok, Ibu and Dukono at the same distance scale. Several Merapi advisories from March 2023 report ash as not identifiable, so those cards have no outline.

The directory below lists the 127 volcanoes that Indonesia’s volcanology agency classifies as Type A, B or C from their recorded eruption history.

Fig. 03 · All 127 volcanoes in PVMBG’s official Type A / B / C table, as updated 20 September 2021
PVMBG / MAGMA Indonesia · Natural Earth · click a marker or a name

Archive limits

The archive begins more than 14 hours after the continuous eruption. The original airport NOTAMs are unavailable. Event markers use occurrence time, which may precede publication. This retrospective should not be used for current warnings.

Sources and method

The processing pipeline is in volcano-vis.

MaterialSourceTreatment
Infrared framesHimawari-9 AHI band 13, JMA, via NASA GIBS579 ten-minute browse images, re-encoded as WebP
Ash RGB framesHimawari-9 HSD bands 11, 13, 14, 15, JMA, via NOAA Open DataCalibrated with Satpy, resampled and composited locally
Ash advisoriesDarwin VAAC / Bureau of Meteorology, archived via BOM and GDACSCoordinates, times and flight levels normalised; corrections retained
Chronology and airport reportsESDM / PVMBG and BMKG press reportsReport-level statements with their stated times
Airport locationsDGCA, Kementerian PerhubunganOfficial aerodrome reference points
Classification tablePVMBG / MAGMA IndonesiaAll 127 rows as updated 20 September 2021
CoastlinesNatural Earth v5.1.2Public domain

Infrared browse images came from NASA GIBS; Himawari data originate with the Japan Meteorological Agency. These locally derived visualisations do not imply provider endorsement. Data snapshot: 12 September 2026.