Volcano Sample
This page provides a complete sample response for a volcanic hazard from the Active Hazards API endpoint. Volcanic hazards in the API are sourced from Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACs), which are responsible for monitoring and issuing advisories on volcanic ash clouds that may affect aviation and surrounding populations. Each volcano object within the response includes detailed advisory information from the reporting VAAC, including observed and forecast ash cloud geometries, eruption details, and summit elevation data.
Each volcano object is updated every time the reporting VAAC publishes a new advisory. The response captures both the current state of the eruption and projected ash cloud positions at 6-hour forecast intervals, enabling users to assess potential impacts on aviation corridors and nearby populations.
Volcano-Specific Properties
Incident Data
The incident.properties object of the volcano provides a detailed summary of the current volcanic activity status and advisory information. This includes data sourced directly from the VAAC advisory message, covering eruption characteristics, ash cloud observations, and forecast information. Key attributes describe the volcano's physical properties, the current state of the eruption, and the reporting agency's assessment.
Key incident properties for volcanoes include:
advisoryNumber- Advisory number from the reporting VAAC (e.g., "2026/201")forecastAshCloudPresent- Boolean indicating whether ash clouds are forecast in future time stepsobservedAshCloudPresent- Boolean indicating whether ash clouds have been observedsummitElevation- Elevation of the volcano summit in meters (e.g., 3763)eruptionDetails- Brief description of the eruption activity (e.g., "ONGOING VA EMS")infoSource- Data sources used for the advisory (e.g., "GOES-19. WEBCAM. NWP MODELS")riskRating- Numeric risk rating assigned to the volcanic activitylocationDescription- Geographic region of the volcano (e.g., "Guatemala")nextAdvisory- Expected time of the next advisory issuanceforecastValidTime- Valid time for the current forecast observationname- Common name of the volcano (e.g., "Fuego")
Features
The features property of the volcano object is a GeoJSON feature collection providing a geospatial representation of the volcanic event. Each feature within this collection includes a featureType property that indicates its role. The primary types of features are:
ASH_CLOUD features - Polygon geometries showing observed and forecast ash cloud extents at different time steps (0hr, 6hr, 12hr, 18hr). Each ASH_CLOUD feature includes a
forecastHrproperty indicating the forecast hour offset and aforecastValidTimeindicating the valid time for that forecast step. The 0hr feature represents the currently observed ash cloud, while subsequent features represent projected positions.SMART_ALERT features - A polygon representing the alert boundary area for the volcanic event. This geometry defines the broader region under advisory and is also reflected in the top-level
alertGeometryproperty.INCIDENT features - A point geometry located at the volcano's summit, containing the full set of advisory details (eruption information, risk rating, source details, and all properties from the incident data). This serves as the geographic anchor for the volcanic event.
Exposure Areas
The exposureAreas property for volcanoes uses a single exposure level, reflecting the PDC Volcano Hazard Zone around the summit.
Level 0 - PDC Volcano Hazard Zone. This is typically a buffer area around the volcano summit that follows known hazard zones, generally extending approximately 10km from the summit. The geometry may include multiple rings to account for terrain and historical hazard patterns.
Sample Response
Note: In this sample, coordinate arrays in alertGeometry, features geometries, and exposureAreas have been replaced with [...] for brevity. In actual API responses, these properties contain complete GeoJSON coordinate arrays. Additionally, the features array has been truncated to show only representative examples of the ASH_CLOUD (0hr forecast), SMART_ALERT, and INCIDENT feature types. The full response includes four ASH_CLOUD features at 0hr, 6hr, 12hr, and 18hr forecast intervals. The rawMessageFromSource field has also been truncated.
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