Cookin' With Lava

The Virunga Volcanic Chain in Zaire and Rwanda, Africa, as seen through a novel radar imager aboard the space shuttle. Included in this image, taken in Oct., 1994, are the volcanoes Nyiragongo (bottom, just right of center) and Nyamuragira (just left of center) with numerous lava flows extending to the north (top of the image). The study of volcanoes and other features of the Earth through remote sensing technology will increase dramatically with the deployment of NASA's Earth Observing System (EOS) beginning in 1998. EOS will consist of a constellation of Earth-viewing satellites designed to monitor and measure many of the physical and biological phenomena of our planet. If you'd like to learn more about EOS and other remote sensing science, click here.