Natural Parks Foundation, Aso branch live cams

The Natural Parks Foundation is a Japanese non-profit that runs visitor facilities inside the country's national parks — car parks, visitor centres, rest houses and the paths between them. Its Aso branch looks after the area around Kusasenri, the grassland below the active crater of Mount Aso, and it operates the 4K camera shown here.

What the camera covers

The frame holds two things at once: the Nakadake crater, which is the one part of Aso that is active today, and the wide green bowl of Kusasenri in front of it, where horses graze in summer. Kusasenri is itself an old crater, long extinct and now floored with grass and two shallow ponds, which is why the ground in front of the volcano is flat and open rather than forested. Steam from Nakadake is almost always visible in the distance; when the volcano is more active, the plume is darker and taller.

Why a camera matters here

The road and ropeway up to the Nakadake crater rim close whenever the Japan Meteorological Agency raises the alert level or when sulphur dioxide readings climb, which happens several times a year. The camera keeps working when the access does not, and it is the only view of the crater available on those days.

Aso is also one of the largest calderas in the world, roughly 25 kilometres from north to south, with towns, rice fields and a railway line inside it. Most of the people who live there never think of it as a volcano — but the camera is pointed at the part that still is one.