How about this tool?

https://evergiven-everywhere.glitch.me/

Granted, it's the Evergiven, but how hard would it be to exchange the image?

You can choose the 2022 Tonga eruption example on the tool. https://www.leventhalmap.org/projects/insizeor/

Oh, nice! Moving around gives a really good feeling for map projection too.

I like they handle the relational scaling for you as you zoom in/out. I was disappointed at not seeing an option for scaling, but nodded appreciation with "it just works" aspect

Sure, that's fun. That has been taken much further than I would have bothered by just placing a cutout on maps and saving those images. Somebody had an idea, and just didn't stop, and took it to that level. My modern day level of "cleverness" would have stopped well before thinking, "ooh, integrate into a live website". That is clever and allows others to share in the fun.

FWIW:

* I think visuals are great for illumination overall, some people not withstanding :)

* I think they also used semi-transparent shadow

Yes, they did use transparent shadows. You can tell because the images are not GIF's, they're actually a sequence of PNG images overlayed atop other PNG images. There's the base satellite image of the area, then the frames-of-explosion-with-transparency overlayed atop them. You can confirm this by right clicking on the image and choosing "open image in new tab", which will (usually) open this final frame in a new tab.

[0] - https://graphics.reuters.com/TONGA-VOLCANO/lgpdwjyqbvo/cdn/i...

I tried to save one of the "gifs" to share with a friend and was quite upset that I found myself with a png. Interesting technique. Do you think this was done to have better quality animated images? GIF compression isn't amazing (relative to WebM at least)

Very gratified they didn’t just post these as rendered gifs.

Imagine the social media scare you could generate in a year or so after everyone has forgotten about this eruption by sharing a graphics.reuters.com URL for one of these animations that appears to show a satellite image sequence of a massive mushroom cloud obliterating the Korean Peninsula or the Sinai with a breathless ‘LOOK WHAT REUTERS JUST REPORTED!!!’ caption.

It’s really important for reputable sources posting images to think about the fake news potential of them getting shared out of context.

I mean, they could have used APNG at this point. https://caniuse.com/apng

Doesn't compress stuff like that super well but no worse than a sequence of PNGs.

I feel if you're gonna use JS animation anyway, you could just use 2 jpegs, one for masking and a canvas.

Hm. Webp is doing darn well these days too. https://caniuse.com/webp

Avif isn't an option yet.

Probably more along the line of they have some library that uses PNG sequences. Maybe even as simple as a slideshow with short durations. It's a newsy site. They don't have a lot of control over what their CMS/publishing platform can do. Someone probably had a clever idea on how to use something existing in a way not envisioned when created.

Yeah I agree! I knew the eruption was big (being able to clearly see it from space), but those visuals 1) make me remember how big the Pacific is, 2) how much bigger the eruption was than I originally thought, when overlaid on somewhere I know the relative size of (such as Florida).

Yeah, seeing things above the ocean like that removes human relatable scale. Putting it over land masses that humans can relate changes everything.

Now, imagine the struggle with searching for a lost airplane in those same waters. Approaches impossible

It definitely does.

I agree. Not exactly the same, but I live on the southern shoreline of Lake Michigan, and every year/summer, it claims the lives of many people (mainly swimmers). I've watched coast guard helicopters, drones, boats cover (what seems to be) every foot of the few square miles the person was last seen, and still be unsuccessful at finding the missing person. Unimaginable scale when compared to the Pacific!

I'd like to see what it would have looked like on Mars.