On May 21, Iceland's Grímsvötn volcano erupted, sending plumes of ash and smoke nearly 8 miles high into the atmosphere. The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies , an arm of the University of Wisconsin's Space Science and Engineering Center, managed to capture several visible channel photographs of the volcano's initial eruption through the Meteosat-9 satellite. The oblique viewing angle from this satellite helped to emphasize the large vertical extent of the eruption cloud.