On the night of Sept. 6, 2014, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) on NASA's Earth Observing 1 (EO-1) spacecraft observed the ongoing eruption at Holuhraun, Iceland, from an altitude of 438 miles (705 kilometers). Data were collected at a resolution of 98 feet (30 meters) per pixel at different visible and infrared wavelengths.

Although partially covered by clouds, this scene shows the extent of the lava flows that have been erupting from a long fissure over the last week. The front of the lava flows are to the right (east) and extend more than 6.3 miles (10 kilometers) from the vent. The intense radiant energy from the incandescent lava illuminates the clouds and plume from the vent to create this ethereal scene.

The ongoing eruption is being closely monitored by scientists at the Icelandic Meteorological Office and the University of Iceland.

The EO-1 spacecraft is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland. EO-1 is the satellite remote-sensing asset used by the EO-1 Volcano Sensor Web (VSW) developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, which is being used to monitor this, and other, volcanic eruptions around the world.