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At any given moment, about 20 volcanoes on Earth are actively erupting. Often among them is Mayon—the most active volcano in the Philippines. The nearly symmetrical stratovolcano, on Luzon Island near the Albay and Lagonoy gulfs, rises more than 2,400 meters (8,000 feet) above sea level.

Historical records indicate Mayon has erupted 65 times in the past 5,000 years, with the latest episode beginning in January 2026. The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) first reported increased rockfalls near the volcano’s summit and inflation of the mountain’s upper slopes. On January 6, the alert level was increased to three on a five-level scale after lava began flowing from the crater and hot clouds of ash and debris called pyroclastic flows (also called pyroclastic density currents) moved down one side of the mountain.

The volcano was still puffing and lava flowing on February 26, when the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on Landsat 8 acquired this rare, relatively clear image. The natural-color scene is overlaid with infrared observations to highlight the lava’s heat signature. On that day, PHIVOLCS reported volcanic earthquakes, rockfalls, and pyroclastic flows. The longest pyroclastic flow had traveled about 4 kilometers (3 miles) through the Mi-isi Gully on the southeast flank. 

The level-three alert, which remained in place in March, prompted evacuations within a 6-kilometer (4-mile) radius of the crater, displacing hundreds of families from communities including Tabaco City, Malilpot, and Camalig. Past pyroclastic flows have proven extremely destructive, leading to more than 1,000 deaths in 1814, at least 400 deaths in 1897, and 77 deaths in 1993. More than 73,000 people were evacuated during an eruption in 1984.

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) emissions during the current eruption have averaged 2,466 tons per day, with a peak of 6,569 metric tons measured on February 4, 2026. That is the highest SO₂ emission level for one day in 15 years, the PHIVOLCS announced in early February. That was later exceeded on March 6, when SO₂ emissions reached as high as 7,633 metric tons. 

Multiple NASA satellites have also monitored the volcano’s sulfur dioxide emissions, showing sizable plumes of the gas drifting southwest on February 4 and March 6. The Philippine volcanology institute reported a peak in other activity on February 8 and 9, with 469 rockfalls, 12 major pyroclastic flows, and ashfall in the municipalities of Camalig and Guinobatan.

NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Story by Adam Voiland.

References & Resources

• Chan, H. & Konstantinou, K. (2020) Multiscale and multitemporal surface temperature monitoring by satellite thermal infrared imagery at Mayon Volcano, Philippines. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, 401, 106976.
• Global Volcanism Program (2026) Mayon. Accessed March 12, 2026.  
• GMA News Online (2026, January 6) Six Albay towns evacuate residents amid Mayon Volcano Alert Level 3 status. Accessed March 12, 2026.
• NASA Earthdata (2023, January 25) Monitoring Volcanic Sulfur Dioxide Emissions. Accessed March 12, 2026.
• NASA Earth Observatory (2009, December 15) Mayon Volcano Threatens Major Eruption. Accessed March 12, 2026.                            
• PHIVOLCS (2026, March 12) Latest volcano bulletins, advisories, updates & other issuances, or archived issuances. Accessed March 12, 2026.
• PHIVOLCS (2026, February 10) Mayon Volcano Eruption Update. Accessed March 12, 2026.
• Ruth, D.C.S. & Costa, F. (2021) A petrological and conceptual model of Mayon volcano (Philippines) as an example of an open-vent volcano. Bulletin of Volcanology, 83(62).

The Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project (LBFD) is part of NASA’s effort to help enable new aircraft noise standards that are required to open the market to commercial supersonic flight over land.

The federal government banned all civilian supersonic flights over land more than fifty years ago due to sonic boom noise. If new standards are established, the U.S. aviation industry can position itself to lead the commercial supersonic market, and passengers will benefit from significantly shorter travel times.

Over the past decade, fundamental research and experimentation have demonstrated the possibility of supersonic flight with greatly reduced sonic boom noise – one of several key areas needed to transform commercial supersonic flight.  

The LBFD project will demonstrate a reduced sonic boom by utilizing a purpose-built experimental aircraft designated the X-59.

The LBFD project supports a multi-phase effort aimed at demonstrating the X-59’s ability to fly supersonic without generating loud sonic booms. The LBFD project leads Phase 1 of the Quesst mission, involving the design, fabrication, ground tests, and checkout flights of the X-59.

After ensuring the aircraft is safe and performing as expected, the LBFD project will support the rest of the mission team during Phase 2 to prove the aircraft is producing a quiet sound to people on the ground and is safe for operations in the National Airspace System.

At the conclusion of Phase 2, the X-59 aircraft will transfer to the Integrated Aviation Systems Program’s Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities project.

NASA astronauts will conduct a pair of spacewalks beginning Wednesday, March 18, outside of the International Space Station to prepare for the installation of two roll-out solar arrays. Experts from NASA will preview the spacewalks during a news conference at 2 p.m. EDT, Monday, March 16, at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Watch NASA’s live coverage of the news conference on the agency’s YouTube channel. Learn how to stream NASA content through a variety of online platforms, including social media.

NASA participants include:

• Bill Spetch, operations integration manager, International Space Station Program
• Diana Trujillo, spacewalk flight director, Flight Operations Directorate
• Ronak Dave, spacewalk flight director, Flight Operations Directorate

Media interested in participating in person or by phone must contact the NASA Johnson newsroom no later than 10 a.m. on March 16 by calling 281-483-5111 or emailing jsccommu@mail.nasa.gov. To ask questions by phone, reporters must dial into the news conference no later than 15 minutes prior to the start of the call. Questions also may be submitted on social media using #AskNASA. NASA’s media accreditation policy is available online.

On March 18, NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Chris Williams will conduct U.S. spacewalk 94, exiting the orbiting laboratory’s Quest airlock to prepare the 2A power channel for the future International Space Station Roll-Out Solar Arrays (IROSA) installation. It will be Meir’s fourth spacewalk and Williams’ first.

Watch NASA’s live coverage beginning at 6:30 a.m. on NASA+, Amazon Prime, and the agency’s YouTube channel. U.S. spacewalk 94 will begin at approximately 8 a.m. and is expected to last about six and a half hours.

For U.S. spacewalk 95, two NASA astronauts will prepare the station’s 3B power channel for a future IROSA installation. NASA will provide more information on the date and time of the spacewalk, the crew members assigned to the activity, and coverage details closer to the operation.

The spacewalks will be the 278th and 279th supporting space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades. They also are the first two station spacewalks of 2026 and the first for Expedition 74. Spacewalks 94 and 95 originally were scheduled for January, but the target dates were adjusted after the early departure of NASA’s SpaceX Crew‑11 mission.

Learn more about International Space Station research and operations at:

https://www.nasa.gov/station

-end-

Josh Finch / Jimi Russell
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1100
joshua.a.finch@nasa.gov / james.j.russell@nasa.gov

Sandra Jones
Johnson Space Center, Houston
281-483-5111
sandra.p.jones@nasa.gov

The Integrated Aviation Systems Program (IASP) conducts research and integrated, systems-level demonstrations in a flight environment to prove, mature and transition them into future aircraft and systems. The program aims to determine feasibility and accelerate development of less mature technologies, and for more mature technologies, execute highly complex flight demonstrations to prove and accelerate technology transition to industry.

IASP Projects

The program’s portfolio currently consists of these projects: Subsonic Flight Demonstrator, Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration, Low Boom Flight Demonstrator, and Flight Demonstrations and Capabilities. 

With the first images from the spacecraft now in hand, the team behind NASA’s Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, is ready to begin charting the energetic lives of the galaxy’s most common stars to help answer one of humanity’s most profound questions: Which distant worlds beyond our solar system might be habitable? 

Initial, or “first light,” images mark the moment a mission proves its instruments are functioning in space and ready to transition to full science operations. This milestone is especially important for SPARCS, whose observations depend on highly precise ultraviolet (UV) measurements, making the demonstration of the camera’s performance critical to achieving its science goals. The spacecraft launched Jan. 11; the images came down Feb. 6 and were subsequently processed. 

Roughly the size of a large cereal box, SPARCS will monitor flares and sunspot activity on low-mass stars — objects only 30% to 70% the mass of the Sun. These stars are among the most common in the Milky Way and host the majority of the galaxy’s roughly 50 billion habitable-zone terrestrial planets, which are rocky worlds close enough to their stars for temperatures that could allow liquid water and potentially support life. 

“Seeing SPARCS’ first ultraviolet images from orbit is incredibly exciting. They tell us the spacecraft, the telescope, and the detectors are performing as tested on the ground and we are ready to begin the science we built this mission to do,” says SPARCS Principal Investigator Evgenya Shkolnik, professor of Astrophysics at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, which leads the mission. 

The SPARCS spacecraft is the first dedicated to continuously and simultaneously monitoring the far-ultraviolet and near-ultraviolet radiation from low-mass stars for extended periods. Over its one-year mission, SPARCS will target approximately 20 low-mass stars and observe them over durations of five to 45 days.  

Although such stars are small, dim, and cool compared to the Sun, they are also known to flare far more frequently than our solar system’s star. The flares can dramatically affect the atmospheres of the planets they host. Understanding the host star is key to understanding a planet’s habitability.

Future focused  

“I am so excited that we are on the brink of learning about exoplanets’ host stars and the effect of their activities on the planets’ potential habitability,” said Shouleh Nikzad, the lead developer of the SPARCS camera (dubbed SPARCam) and the chief technologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. “I’m doubly excited that we are contributing to this mission with detector and filter technologies we developed at JPL’s Microdevices Laboratory.” Created in 1989, the facility is where inventors harness physics, chemistry, and material science, including quantum, to deliver first-of-their-kind devices and capabilities for the nation. 

The filters were made using a technique that improves sensitivity and performance by enabling them to be directly deposited onto the specially developed UV-sensitive “delta-doped” detectors. The approach of detector-integrated filters eliminated the need for a separate filter element, resulting in a system that is among the most sensitive of its kind ever flown in space.  

“We took silicon-based detectors — the same technology as in your smartphone camera — and we created a high-sensitivity UV imager. Then we integrated filters into the detector to reject the unwanted light. That is a huge leap forward to doing big science in small packages,” Nikzad said, “and SPARCS serves to demonstrate their long-term performance in space.” 

This technology paves the way for future missions like NASA’s next potential UV-capable flagship mission, the Habitable Worlds Observatory mission concept, as well as smaller interim missions, such as the agency’s forthcoming UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer), which is led by Caltech in Pasadena.  

The mission takes advantage of advances in computational processing as well, with an onboard computer that can perform data processing and intelligently adjust the observation parameters to better sample the development of flares as they happen.  

“The SPARCS mission brings all of these pieces together — focused science, cutting-edge detectors, and intelligent onboard processing — to deepen our understanding of the stars that most planets in the galaxy call home,” said David Ardila, SPARCS instrument scientist at JPL. “By watching these stars in ultraviolet light in a way we’ve never done before, we’re not just studying flares. These observations will sharpen our picture of stellar environments and help future missions interpret the habitability of distant worlds.”

More about SPARCS 

Funded by NASA and led by Arizona State University, SPARCS is managed under the agency’s Astrophysics Research and Analysis program. The agency’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) selected SPARCS in 2022 for a ride to orbit. The initiative is a low-cost pathway for conducting scientific investigations and technology demonstrations in space, enabling students and faculty to gain hands-on experience with flight hardware design, development, and building.  

Blue Canyon Technologies fabricated the spacecraft bus.

News Media Contact

Matthew Segal
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-8307
matthew.j.segal@jpl.nasa.gov

Alise Fisher / Karen Fox
NASA Headquarters, Washington
202-358-2546 / 202-385-1287
alise.m.fisher@nasa.gov / karen.c.fox@nasa.gov

Kim Baptista  
Arizona State University, School of Earth and Space Exploration  
480-727-4662
Kim.Baptista@asu.edu 

2026-016

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