A US-Indian satellite has tracked the spread of lava from Russia’s Krasheninnikov volcano in a newly released radar time-lapse, showing how repeated observations from space can document a remote eruption. NASA published the sequence on September 24 using data from NISAR, a mission developed with the Indian Space Research Organisation. The images follow changes on the Kamchatka Peninsula from December 2025 through mid-August 2026.
Krasheninnikov began erupting in early August 2025 after roughly five centuries of quiet, according to NASA. The agency said a magnitude 8.8 earthquake off Kamchatka days earlier appeared to have jolted one of the volcano pair into activity, though that relationship is described as apparent rather than established. Lava has flowed eastward from the northern crater since the eruption began.
NISAR collected the first image used in this account on December 25, 2025, while it was completing checks after launch. From about 747 kilometers above Earth, it revisited the site twice every 12 days, once on each orbital direction. Researchers assembled 17 radar frames through mid-August into an animation that shows lava filling an inner caldera, overflowing into a broader crater and spreading outward in a fan.
The images come from the satellite’s L-band synthetic aperture radar, which uses microwave measurements to map the ground. NASA said the instrument can provide near-global land coverage and detail at a scale of several meters. Cornell geophysicist and NISAR science team member Matthew Pritchard said the consistent, high-resolution repeat observations demonstrate the mission’s potential for monitoring natural hazards. NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio also published the underlying animation and listed the observation dates.
The eruption is a test of how scientists may follow changes at volcanoes that are difficult to observe continuously from the ground. NASA said the approach could support both research and, potentially, emergency response; the animation itself is a retrospective sequence, not a real-time warning. The agency said NISAR’s radar data are available through the Alaska Satellite Facility archive, allowing researchers to continue studying this eruption and other changing landscapes.
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