At 9:30 on the evening of December 20, the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO) detected a glow within Halemaʻumaʻu crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano, indicating that an eruption had begun within Kīlauea’s summit caldera. The water lake at the summit of Kīlauea boiled away with an effusive eruption and vents continue to generate lava, pouring into a growing lava lake at the base of the crater. The University of Hawai‘i (UH) Vog Measurement and Prediction (VMAP) Project continues to create forecasts of dispersion and trajectories of volcanic smog, referred to as vog, which are available in real-time online.
Aloha! Welcome to the home page of the Department of Atmospheric Sciences. We are entering our second half century providing education in the atmospheric sciences here at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. Since 1988 we have been part of the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST).To learn about our educational programs and our exciting research and service activities follow the links at left. For more information about the history and structure of the department, please visit our About the Department page.
The department also maintains an online Weather Server displaying real time weather observations, including information on current weather conditions, and forecasts for Hawai’i, the central Pacific region, and the continental United States.