Taken on May 6, 2010, this image of the plume of Eyjafjallajokull from NASA's Terra satellite shows the thickness and reach of the volcano's ash cloud. While the plume did throw a monkeywrench into air travel in Europe, amazingly it doesn't affect the climate globally as other volcanoes can do. At its northerly latitude, the ash doesn't mix into the global air patterns like the eruptions from more equatorial volcanoes can.

Image credit: NASA