Volcanic eruption in Philippines (May 2026)

Mayon Volcano in the Philippines erupted in early May 2026. This recent publicly reported event may be useful for the GEP community as a starting point to look at available EO data, inspect changes around the volcano, and prepare workflows for deformation, thermal, and surface-change analysis.

For public context, users can refer to the Mayon (Wikipedia/Wikimedia) page for general location information and the Disaster Charter activation page (Disaster Charter) for the public event record.

For EO data discovery, Sentinel-1 acquisitions over Mayon are a useful starting point for SAR coherence, intensity change, and DInSAR deformation analysis, depending on acquisition timing and geometry. Sentinel-2 imagery may help identify surface or vegetation changes where cloud conditions allow, while Sentinel-3 thermal data can provide broader thermal context when suitable. Public volcano observatory or geological survey information should also be used to help interpret EO-derived signals.

Data discovery on GEP

Users can start from the GEP Geobrowser to inspect available EO data before choosing a processing workflow. An initial Sentinel-1 search has been prepared around Mayon Volcano and the event date:

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The following GEP services may be useful starting points for users preparing EO workflows around this event. They are listed as possible options only; this does not imply that they have already been run for the event.

A practical first step would be to review Sentinel-1 acquisitions before and after 3 May 2026, check whether the acquisition geometry supports deformation or coherence-based analysis, and then complement the SAR results with Sentinel-2 or Sentinel-3 observations where conditions allow. The public ashfall assessment above can be used only as an external reference example for comparison.

This topic is shared for community awareness, EO data discovery, and workflow preparation. It is not an official emergency response communication and does not imply that GEP produced the public reference products or is providing operational emergency response support.