The 2014-2015 Bárðarbunga-Veiðivötn fissure eruption at Holuhraun produced about 1.5 km 3 of lava, making it the largest eruption in Iceland in more than 200 years. Over the course of the eruption, daily volcanic sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emissions exceeded daily SO 2 emissions from all anthropogenic sources in Europe in 2010 by at least a factor of 3. We present surface air quality observations from across Northern Europe together with satellite remote sensing data and model simulations of volcanic SO 2 for September 2014. We show that volcanic SO 2 was transported in the lowermost troposphere over long distances and detected by air quality monitoring stations up to 2750 km away from the source. Using retrievals from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI), we calculate an average daily SO 2 mass burden of 99 ± 49 kilotons (kt) of SO 2 from OMI and 61 ± 18 kt of SO 2 from IASI for September 2014. This volcanic burden is at least a factor of 2 greater than the average SO 2 mass burden between 2007 and 2009 due to anthropogenic emissions from the whole of Europe. Combining the observational data with model simulations using the United Kingdom Met Office's Numerical Atmospheric-dispersion Modelling Environment model, we are able to constrain SO 2 emission rates to up to 120 kilotons per day (kt/d) during early September 2014, followed by a decrease to 20-60 kt/d between 6 and 22 September 2014, followed by a renewed increase to 60-120 kt/d until the end of September 2014. Based on these fluxes, we estimate that the eruption emitted a total of 2.0 ± 0.6 Tg of SO 2 during September 2014, in good agreement with ground-based remote sensing and petrological estimates. Although satellite-derived and model-simulated vertical column densities of SO 2 agree well, the model simulations are biased low by up to a factor of 8 when compared to surface observations of volcanic SO 2 on 6-7 September 2014 in Ireland. These biases are mainly due to relatively small horizontal and vertical positional errors in the simulations of the volcanic plume occurring over transport distances of thousands of kilometers. Although the volcanic air pollution episodes were transient and lava-dominated volcanic eruptions are sporadic events, the observations suggest that (i) during an eruption, volcanic SO 2 measurements should be assimilated for near real-time air quality forecasting and (ii) existing air quality monitoring networks should be retained or extended to monitor SO 2 and other volcanic pollutants.

Volcanic activity is observed worldwide with a variety of ground and space-based remote sensing instruments, each with advantages and drawbacks. No single system can give a comprehensive description of eruptive activity, and so, a multi-sensor approach is required. This work integrates infrared and microwave volcanic ash retrievals obtained from the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation (MSG)-Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI), the polar-orbiting Aqua-MODIS and ground-based weather radar. The expected outcomes are improvements in satellite volcanic ash cloud retrieval (altitude, mass, aerosol optical depth and effective radius), the generation of new satellite products (ash concentration and particle number density in the thermal infrared) and better characterization of volcanic eruptions (plume altitude, total ash mass erupted and particle number density from thermal infrared to microwave). This approach is the core of the multi-platform volcanic ash cloud estimation procedure being developed within the European FP7-APhoRISM project. The Mt. Etna (Sicily, Italy) volcano lava fountaining event of 23 November 2013 was considered as a test case. The results of the integration show the presence of two volcanic cloud layers at different altitudes. The improvement of the volcanic ash cloud altitude leads to a mean difference between the SEVIRI ash mass estimations, before and after the integration, of about the 30%. Moreover, the percentage of the airborne "fine" ash retrieved from the satellite is estimated to be about 1%-2% of the total ash emitted during the eruption. Finally, all of the estimated parameters (volcanic ash cloud altitude, thickness and total mass) were also validated with ground-based visible camera measurements, HYSPLIT forward trajectories, Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) satellite data and tephra deposits.

Abstract.A new optimal estimation algorithm for the retrieval of sulphur dioxide (SO 2 ) has been developed for the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) using the channels between 1000-1200 and 1300-1410 cm −1 . These regions include the two SO 2 absorption bands centred at about 8.7 and 7.3 µm (the ν 1 and ν 3 bands respectively). The retrieval assumes a Gaussian SO 2 profile and returns the SO 2 column amount in Dobson units and the altitude of the plume in millibars (mb). Forward modelled spectra (against which the measurements are compared) are based on the Radiative Transfer for TOVS (RTTOV) code. In our implementation RTTOV uses atmospheric profiles from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) meteorological data. The retrieval includes a comprehensive error budget for every pixel derived from an error covariance matrix that is based on the SO 2 -free climatology of the differences between the IASI and forward modelled spectra. The IASI forward model includes the ability to simulate a cloud or ash layer in the atmosphere. This feature is used to illustrate that: (1) the SO 2 retrieval is not affected by underlying cloud but is affected if the SO 2 is within or below a cloud layer; (2) it is possible to discern if ash (or other atmospheric constituents not considered in the error covariance matrix) affects the retrieval using quality control based on the fit of the measured spectrum by the forward modelled spectrum. In this work, the algorithm is applied to follow the behaviour of SO 2 plumes from the Eyjafjallajökull eruption during April and May 2010. From 14 April to 4 May (during Phase I and II of the eruption) the total amount of SO 2 present in the atmosphere, estimated by IASI measurements, is generally below 0.02 Tg. During the last part of the eruption (Phase III) the values are an order of magnitude higher, with a maximum of 0.18 Tg measured on the afternoon of 7 May.

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An inter-comparison study of the aerosol optical thickness (AOT) at 0.55 μm retrieved using different satellite instruments and algorithms based on the analysis of backscattered solar light is presented for a single scene over central Europe on October 13th, 2005. For the first time comparisons have been performed for as many as six instruments on multiple satellite platforms. Ten different algorithms are briefly discussed and inter-compared. It was found that on the scale of a single pixel there can be large differences in AOT retrieved over land using different retrieval techniques and instruments. However, these differences are not as pronounced for the average AOT over land. For instance, the average AOT at 0.55 μm for the area 7-12E, 49-53N was equal to 0.14 for MISR, NASA MODIS and POLDER algorithms. It is smaller by 0.01 for the ESA MERIS aerosol product and larger by 0.04 for the MERIS BAER algorithm. AOT as derived using AATSR gives on average larger values as compared to all other instruments, while SCIAMACHY retrievals underestimate the aerosol loading. These discrepancies are explained by uncertainties in a priori assumptions used in the different algorithms and differences in the sensor characteristics. Validation against AERONET shows that MERIS provides the most accurate AOT retrievals for this scene.

The underwater Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha-apai volcano erupted in the early hours of 15th January 2022, and injected volcanic gases and aerosols to over 50 km altitude. Here we synthesise satellite, ground-based, in situ and radiosonde observations of the eruption to investigate the strength of the stratospheric aerosol and water vapour perturbations in the initial weeks after the eruption and we quantify the net radiative impact across the two species using offline radiative transfer modelling. We find that the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha-apai eruption produced the largest global perturbation of stratospheric aerosols since the Pinatubo eruption in 1991 and the largest perturbation of stratospheric water vapour observed in the satellite era. Immediately after the eruption, water vapour radiative cooling dominated the local stratospheric heating/cooling rates, while at the top-of-the-atmosphere and surface, volcanic aerosol cooling dominated the radiative forcing. However, after two weeks, due to dispersion/dilution, water vapour heating started to dominate the top-of-the-atmosphere radiative forcing, leading to a net warming of the climate system.

Abstract. Fast and reliable methods for the detection of atmospheric trace species are needed for near-real-time applications including volcanic hazard avoidance. One common approach using hyperspectral instruments is to measure the difference in brightness temperature between a small number of target sensitive and background channels to determine the presence of the target species. Although fast and robust, current brightness temperature difference methods do not fully exploit the spectral range and resolution of hyperspectral instruments, and the noise associated with the measurements remains high. In this paper, we describe a way to make full use of the spectral information from hyperspectral sounders allowing the presence of the target species to be determined with much better sensitivity in near-real-time if required. The technique is demonstrated using the MetOp Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer considering two case studies: (a) the detection of sulphur dioxide from the eruption of the Kasatochi volcano in Alaska in August 2008, and (b) the detection of ammonia emissions related to agriculture over Southern Asia in May 2008. The performance of this method is compared against that of existing brightness temperature difference methods. It is found that the sensitivity of the detection of these trace species is improved by up to an order of magnitude.

Since 2010, several papers have been published that reveal a pattern of discrepancies between stratospheric aerosol data from the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imaging System (OSIRIS) instrument and other measurements and model simulations of volcanic plumes from Kasatochi, Sarychev Peak, and Nabro volcanoes. OSIRIS measurements show two discrepancies, a posteruption lag in aerosol onset/increase and a low bias in maximum stratospheric aerosol optical depth. Assumed robustness of the OSIRIS data drove various conclusions, some controversial, such as the contention that the June 2011 Nabro plume was strictly tropospheric, and entered the stratosphere indirectly via the Asian monsoon. Those conclusions were driven by OSIRIS data and a Smithsonian Institution report of strictly tropospheric injection heights. We address the issue of Nabro's eruption chronology and injection height, and the reasons for the OSIRIS aerosol discrepancies. We lay out the time line of Nabro injection height with geostationary image data, and stratospheric plume evolution after eruption onset using retrievals of sulfur dioxide and sulfate aerosol. The observations show that Nabro injected sulfur directly to or above the tropopause upon the initial eruption on 12/13 June and again on 16 June 2011. Next, OSIRIS data are examined for nonvolcanic and volcanically perturbed conditions. In nonvolcanic conditions OSIRIS profiles systematically terminate 1–4 km above the tropopause. Additionally, OSIRIS profiles terminate when 750 nm aerosol extinction exceeds ∼0.0025 km−1, a level that is commonly exceeded after volcanic injections. Our findings largely resolve the discrepancies in published works involving OSIRIS aerosol data and offer a correction to the Nabro injection‐height and eruption chronology.