On 27th October 2002, after 15 months of small activity the Mount Etna located on the island of Sicily, Italy, (37o73^'N,15o00^'E) erupted undergoing one of its most vigorous eruptions in years. During few days running, the Europe's highest and most active volcano hurled lava and spewed significant amounts of ash and trace gases into the atmosphere. The smoke and ash plume originating from the volcano stretched from the Sicily to the north African coast. The larger volcanic ash particles are expected to settle out in a short period of time, but the sulphuric acid aerosols produced by the emitted sulphur rich gases will persist for several years. These aerosols will impact the Earth's energy budget, both regionally and on a global scale. The plume from the volcano has been identified and tracked using half-hourly Meteosat-7 visible, infrared and water vapour imagery in order to estimate the radiative forcing seeds by the introduction of the volcanic cloud in a previously clear sky. Indeed, as the black graphite and carbon particles reduce the amount of sunldight reaching the planet's surface, they increase the amount of solar energy absorbed in the atmosphere, thus simultaneously cooling the surface and warming the atmosphere.