Volcano: La Palma Eruption Timelapse

Evolution of the Cumbre Vieja volcano eruption on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) viewed from space. This timelapse documents the impact and development of the lava flows between September 10 and December 29, 2021.

The images were obtained through the Sentinel 2 satellites of the European Space Agency's Copernicus program, with a visual update of the orography every 5 days. The initial eruption occurred on September 19, 2021 at 14:10 UTC.

Watch the full timelapse:

The Event

On September 19, 2021, the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the island of La Palma (Canary Islands, Spain) erupted after decades of dormancy. The eruption lasted 85 days and significantly altered the island's landscape, destroying homes and farmland as lava flows reached the sea.

The Visualization and Spectral Analysis

To reveal information hidden to the naked eye and generate the visualizations, an RGB conversion was performed by combining the following Sentinel 2 satellite spectral bands:

• Vegetation Analysis: Red B11 | Green B8 | Blue B4
• Atmospheric Penetration: Red B12 | Green B11 | Blue B8A
• Traditional RGB Vision: Red B4 | Green B3 | Blue B2
• Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI): Gradient (B8 − B4) / (B8 + B4)
• Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIR): Red B8 | Green B4 | Blue B3
• Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI): Gradient (B3 − B8) / (B3 + B8)

Technical Process

Each frame was processed from raw Sentinel-2 Level-2A products, with atmospheric correction already applied. Band composites were generated programmatically, and the temporal alignment accounts for Sentinel-2's 5-day revisit period over the Canary Islands.

The project demonstrates how freely available satellite data can be transformed into powerful visual narratives for public understanding of natural events. I conducted this research and study in collaboration with the Quercus Software Engineering Group from the Polytechnic School of Cáceres (University of Extremadura).

Watch on YouTube