A stationary front caused the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano’s ash plume to change direction over this past weekend, and NASA satellites followed the plume’s movement as the front shifted.

b UTC (8:45 a.m. EDT), the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard the Terra satellite saw the ash plume from Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull Volcano being pulled into the circulation of the cold side of a stationary front. In the visible satellite image from NASA, the plume swept west from the volcano and was then pulled northwest around the system.

On Saturday, May 15 as the stationary front continued drifting to the east, and the warm sector of the front moved near southern Iceland, the winds shifted. The MODIS instrument flying aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of the plume at 13:40 UTC (9:40 a.m. EDT) the ash plume from Eyjafjallajokull Volcano as it began drifting back in a more southerly direction.

By Sunday, May 16 at 12:30 UTC (8:30 a.m. EDT) when NASA’s Terra satellite flew overhead, the area of low pressure associated with the stationary front had moved to the east of Iceland. As the winds continued to shift and blow to the southeast, the brownish ash plume from the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano started moving in a southeasterly direction.