January 2006

25/26 Jan - Well I guess the good weather couldn't last... clouds obscured the view of the crater and there was no sign of the glow on last nights images... By the way, happy Australia Day! Today's is Australia's big day to celebrate - traditionally with a big meal of roast leg of lamb :-)

Night of 24/25 January - The incandescent glow for the growing lavadome was clearly visible in several distinct locations throughout last night, with two hotspots being the most prominent. The first animation below shows the processed images at the approximate brightness as seen in the Volcanocam images and the second was further enhanced to emphasise the brightness of the glows from the crater. 
Flash movie - showing images of the glow    (size 282 kB)
Flash movie - enhanced images of the glow, superimposed on a background image of the mountain (only the area around the crater animated) (size 309 kB)

Night of 23/24 January - There were multiple glows from the lavadome visible in an active display that lasted for the entire night. The first animation below shows the processed images at the approximate brightness as seen in the Volcanocam images and the second was further enhanced to emphasise the brightness of the glows from the crater. 
Flash movie - showing images of the glow    (size 266 kB)
Flash movie - enhanced images of the glow, superimposed on a background image of the mountain (only the area around the crater animated) (size 307 kB)

Night of 22/23 January - Two distinct glows from the lavadome were visible from sunset until 22:33 last night. There was a third hotspot visible in the image taken at 22:33, the last in which the glow was seen before clouds obscured the view for the rest of the night. There were no larger tremors recorded on the webicorders last night, just the small regular drumbeat tremors every couple of minutes. Both of the animations below were processed to enhance the brightness of the glow. 
Flash movie - showing enhanced images of the glow    (size 166 kB)
Flash movie - enhanced images of the glow, superimposed on a background image of the mountain (only the area around the crater animated) (size 183 kB)

Night of 21/22 January - Last night provided the first long term views of the crater since mid December last year! At sunset the crater was still obscured by clouds, then at 20:21 the clouds parted for a couple of hours and two distinct glows were visible on the Volcanocam images. The clouds obscured the crater again for a couple of hours, before the glow reappeared just after 03:00 and was then visible until sunrise. The Volcanocam is currently showing the first daylight views of the crater since 14 December 2005. All animations are at 12fps, which is the equivalent of one hour of images in one second. The first shows the processed images from the Volcanocam, slightly enhanced to emphasise the incandescent glow. The second shows those same images superimposed on a daylight image of the mountain to provide a reference to the view. The third is an extended version of the first animation and includes about an hour of images before sunset and after sunrise this morning. Enjoy! UPDATE: There was a small tremor and plume event this morning at 10:43.
Flash movie - showing enhanced images of the glow  (size 360 kB)
Flash movie - enhanced images of the glow, superimposed on a background image of the mountain  (size 415 kB)
Flash movie - extended version of the night time animation, including sunset and sunrise (846 kB)

Night of 17/18 January -  Between 20:38 and 21:38 last night the clouds parted sufficiently to give us a glimpse of the still active lavadome. Three distinct incandescent glows were visible from different regions in the crater. I have slowed the animation down to 2fps so the details are easily observed. Both animations were processed to enhance the brightness of the glow. There was also a larger tremor during this brief sequence at 21:29.
Flash movie - showing enhanced images of the glow    (size 72 kB)
Flash movie - enhanced images of the glow, superimposed on a background image of the mountain (only the area around the crater animated) (size 87 kB)

16/17 Jan - A brief glimpse of the lavadome this morning! Clouds obscured the view of the crater for most of the night, but between 05:22 and 05:42 several images showed two distinct glows from the lavadome. Not enough images for an animation, but here is a processed image of those 5 frames, and another with that image stacked on an image of the mountain (for reference). Also there was another larger tremor last night at 17:23. This is our first night time view for 5 weeks!

08/09 Jan - Unfortunately, clouds again obscured the view of the crater last night. There was a larger tremor at 17:23 yesterday afternoon, which was followed by a couple of hours of reduced seismicity - although the small drumbeat tremors after 19:00. There clouds parted briefly a couple of time yesterday morning to provide our first views of the crater since December - revealing that Mount St Helens is covered in a thick layer of snow (eg. img #1, img #2). It is not readily apparent from these images what developments have occurred in the crater, as they don't provide an unobstructed view of the lavadome. Although there is no obvious signs of recent ash falls.

07/08 Jan - The view of the crater was totally obscured by clouds last night - so still no visual observations of the crater. There was one larger tremor last night at 21:49.

06/07 Jan - The Volcanocam is back and working brilliantly! Congratulations to Dennis and the team at the USDA Forest Service for their quick and effective repairs to the server at JRO. Unfortunately, the weather isn't playing ball and clouds obscured the view of the crater throughout last night. There was one larger tremor last night at 18:14, but otherwise no significant changes in the levels of seismicity.

Night of 13/14 December - A glorious night on Mount St Helens. The moon illuminated the mountain and multiple glows flickered away throughout the night. Unfortunately the transmission of images stopped just after 05:00 this morning. Hopefully, this isn't more than a temporary communications glitch. The animation below shows enhanced images of the full view of the crater from sunset until 05:11 this morning - at the approximate brightness as seen in the Volcanocam images.
Flash movie - just the images of the glow  (size 998 kB)