Abstract
Abstract. The volcanic ash cloud from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in April and May 2010 resulted in unprecedented disruption to air traffic in Western Europe causing significant financial losses and highlighting the importance of efficient volcanic cloud monitoring. The feasibility of using SO2 as a tracer for the ash released during the eruption is investigated here through comparison of ash retrievals from the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) with SO2 measurements from a number of infrared and ultraviolet satellite-based sensors. Results demonstrate that the eruption can be divided into an initial ash-rich phase, a lower intensity middle phase and a final phase where considerably greater quantities both ash and SO2 were released. Comparisons of ash-SO2 dispersion indicate that despite frequent collocation of the two species, there are a number of instances throughout the eruption where separation is observed. This separation occurs vertically due to the more rapid settling rate of ash compared to SO2, horizontally through wind shear and temporally through volcanological controls on eruption style. The potential for the two species to be dispersed independently has consequences in terms of aircraft hazard mitigation and highlights the importance of monitoring both species concurrently.
Highlights
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland (63.63◦ N, 19.6215◦ W; 1666 m a.s.l.) erupted explosively on 14 April 2010 and continued to emit ash and gas until 24 May
With the current rapid rate of air traffic growth (ESCAP, 2005) there is the potential for many more such incidents and it is the responsibility of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) to provide advisories to the aviation industry through the effective modelling and monitoring of eruption clouds
The retrieval of volcanic ash for the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) instrument is based on the brightness temperature difference (BTD) between channels 9 (10.8 μm) and 10 (12 μm) (Prata, 1989a, b), which is negative for silicate ash
Summary
The Eyjafjallajökull volcano, Iceland (63.63◦ N, 19.6215◦ W; 1666 m a.s.l.) erupted explosively on 14 April 2010 and continued to emit ash and gas until 24 May. One of the most significant consequences of the eruption was the change in flight safety policy from zero tolerance to the introduction of ash concentration thresholds (CAA, 2010). With the current rapid rate of air traffic growth (ESCAP, 2005) there is the potential for many more such incidents and it is the responsibility of the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) to provide advisories to the aviation industry through the effective modelling and monitoring of eruption clouds. Throughout the Eyjafjallajökull eruption, the London VAAC at the UK Met Office was responsible for producing model predictions for the location of the ash cloud. Following the introduction of a quantitative ash threshold, predictions of ash concentration were reported in order to advise the aviation authorities throughout the six-week eruption period. Satellite remote sensing provides means by which model results can be validated in near real-time and subsequently used to improve the accuracy of outputs (e.g. Stohl et al, 2011) thereby allowing volcanic cloud predictions with greater certainty
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