Adaptive sky sensor web: novel multi-instrument, multi-satellite observations of volcanic ash

Abstract

In this paper, selected Adaptive Sky components are combined to identify, track, and reacquire volcanic ash clouds generated by the October 2007 eruption of Bezymianny in Kamchatka. The basic strategy leverages the wide area coverage/high temporal sampling of NOAA's geostationary GOES-West satellite and the high spatial resolution/specialty instruments of NASA's polar orbiting satellites. Using GOES brightness temperature difference (BTD) image sequences to track features over time, we are able to unambiguously associate measurements made in mid-ocean by the MISR (Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRa- diometer) instrument on Terra and by the CALIOP (Cloud- Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization) instrument on CALIPSO with volcanic ash clouds from Bezymianny despite a time separation of ≈ 30 hours and a spatial separation of ≈ 400 km from the eruption event. To our knowledge, this marks the first ever unambiguous daytime observation of a tropospheric volcanic ash cloud with CALIOP and the first joint observation by both MISR and CALIOP of the same volcanic ash cloud. In the absence of the feature correspondence and data fusion capabilities provided by Adaptive Sky, these returns likely would have been attributed to cirrus clouds. (8 pages)