During the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in April and May 2010, the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre demonstrated the importance of infrared (IR) satellite imagery for monitoring volcanic ash and validating the Met Office operational model, NAME. This model is used to forecast ash dispersion and forms much of the basis of the advice given to civil aviation. NAME req...

Earth is no stranger to volcanism. Since proto-Earth and crustal formation, volcanoes have provided pathways for degassing and cooling of our planet’s interior. Volcanism played an important role in the formation of the early atmosphere, oceans and continents, and was likely a necessary component for the development of life. Throughout our species brief history, innumerable volcanoes have erupt...

The decision to close airspace in the event of a volcanic eruption is based on hazard maps of predicted ash extent. These are produced using output from volcanic ash transport and dispersion (VATD) models. In this paper the fractions skill score has been used for the first time to evaluate the spatial accuracy of VATD simulations relative to satellite retrievals of volcanic ash. This objective ...

Local residents exposed to heavy falls of ash discharged by Mt. Sakurajima, an active volcano, have been reported to develop acute and chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract. The present study aimed to determine the primary cause of this inflammation using an experimental model. Wistar rats were exposed for 5 days (4 h/d) to air containing 100 mg/m3 volcanic ash (mass median aerodynamic ...

[1] Pinatubo’s 15 June 1991 eruption was Earth’s largest of the last 25 years, and it formed a substantial volcanic cloud. We present results of analysis of satellite-based infrared remote sensing using Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) and TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder/High Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder/2 (TOVS/HIRS/2) sensors, during the first few days of atmospher...

Volcanic ash from the eruption of Mount St. Helens on 18 May 1980 fell into Williams Lake in eastern Washington and was temporarily suspended at the sediment-water interface. After several months of compaction, the ash layer broke up and sank into lower density uncompacted lake sediment. Stratigraphic time displacements of several hundred years and a failure to recognize discontinuous ash layer...

[1] The February 2001 eruption of Cleveland Volcano, Alaska allowed for comparisons of volcanic ash detection using two-band thermal infrared (10–12 mm) remote sensing from MODIS, AVHRR, and GOES 10. Results show that high latitude GOES volcanic cloud sensing the range of about 50 to 65 N is significantly enhanced. For the Cleveland volcanic clouds the MODIS and AVHRR data have zenith angles 6–...

In this paper we describe the results of a project ongoing at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV). The objective is to develop and implement a system for monitoring and forecasting volcanic plumes of Etna. Monitoring is based at present by multispectral infrared measurements from the Spin Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager on board the Meteosat Second Generation geosynch...

Introduction: There is considerable evidence derived from both orbital observations of geomorphology and geochemical and mineralogical investigations by the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER) that suggests condensed H 2 O was present at some location on the Martian surface in the past history. Orbital measurements by the Gamma Ray Spectrometer on board the Mars Odyssey spacecraft also indicate that ...

Most of the current ash transport and dispersion models neglect particle-fluid (two-way) and particle-fluid plus particle-particle (four-way) reciprocal interactions during particle fallout from volcanic plumes. These interactions, a function of particle concentration in the plume, could play an important role, explaining, for example, discrepancies between observed and modelled ash deposits. A...