Ash plume from Mt. Etna : When this southward-looking digital photograph was taken by the Expedition 2 crew aboard the International Space Station on July 22 2001, the city of Catania (in shadow, ~25 km SSE of the volcano) was covered by a layer of ash and Fontanarossa International Airport was closed. On that day an ash cloud was reported to have reached a maximum height of ~5.2 km. Plumes from two sources are visible here: a dense, darker mass from one of the three summit craters and a lighter, lower one.