The powerful explosive eruptions with large volumes of volcanic ash pose a great danger to the population and jet aircraft. Global experience in monitoring volcanoes and observing changes in the parameters of their thermal anomalies is successfully used to analyze the activity of volcanoes and predict their danger to the population. The Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, with its 30 active volcanoes, is one of the most volcanically active regions in the world. The article considers the thermal activity in 2015–2022 of the Klyuchevskoy, Sheveluch, Bezymianny, and Karymsky volcanoes, whose rock composition varies from basaltic andesite to dacite. This study is based on the analysis of the Value of Temperature Difference between the thermal Anomaly and the Background (the VTDAB), obtained by manual processing of the AVHRR, MODIS, VIIRS, and MSU-MR satellite data in the VolSatView information system. Based on the VTDAB data, the following “background activity of the volcanoes” was determined: 20 °C for Sheveluch and Bezymianny, 12 °C for Klyuchevskoy, and 13–15 °C for Karymsky. This study showed that the highest temperature of the thermal anomaly corresponds to the juvenile magmatic material that arrived on the earth’s surface. The highest VTDAB is different for each volcano; it depends on the composition of the eruptive products produced by the volcano and on the character of an eruption. A joint analysis of the dynamics of the eruption of each volcano and changes in its thermal activity made it possible to determine the range of the VTDAB for different phases of a volcanic eruption.

In 2005, six major eruptions of four Kamchatka volcanoes (Bezymyannyi, Klyuchevskoy, Shiveluch, and Karymskii) occurred and the Avachinskii, Mutnovskii, and Gorelyi Kamchatka volcanoes and the Ebeko and Chikurachki volcanoes in northern Kurils were in a state of increased activity. Owing to a close collaboration between the KVERT project, Elizovo airport meteorological center, and volcanic ash advisory centers in Tokyo, Anchorage, and Washington (Tokyo, Anchorage, and Washington VAACs), all necessary measures for safe airplane flights near Kamchatka were taken and fatal accidents related to volcanic activity did not occur.

Large explosive eruptions of volcanoes pose the highest hazard to modern jet f lights, because such eruptions can eject as much as several cubic kilometers of volcanic ash and aerosol into the atmosphere during a few hours or days. The year 2016 saw eruptions on 5 of the 30 active Kamchatka volcanoes (Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, Karymsky, and Zhupanovsky) and on 3 of the 6 active volcanoes that exist on the North Kuril Islands (Alaid, Ebeko, and Chikurachki). Effusive activity was observed on Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, Bezymianny, and Alaid. All volcanoes showed explosive activity. The large explosive events mostly occurred from September through December (Sheveluch), a moderate ash emission accompanied the entire Klyuchevskoy eruption in March–November, and explosive activity of Karymsky, Zhupanovsky, Alaid, and Chikurachki was mostly observed in the earlie r half of the year. The ash ejected in 2016 covered a total area of 600 000 km2, with 460 000 km2 of this being due to Kamchatka volcanoes and 140 000 km2 to the eruptions of the North Kuril volcanoes. The activity of Sheveluch, Klyuchevskoy, and Zhupanovsky was dangerous to international and local f lights, because the explosions sent ash to heights of 10–12 km above sea level, while the eruptions of Bezymianny, Karymsky, Alaid, Ebeko, and Chikurachki were dangerous for local flights, since the ash did not rise higher than 5 km above sea level.