Observations of the altitude of the volcanic plume during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, April–May 2010

Abstract

Abstract. The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in 2010 lasted for 39 days, 14 April–23 May. The eruption had two explosive phases separated by a phase with lava formation and reduced explosive activity. The height of the plume was monitored every 5 min with a C-band weather radar located in Keflavík International Airport, 155 km distance from the volcano. Furthermore, several web cameras were mounted with a view of the volcano, and their images saved every five seconds. Time series of the plume-top altitude were constructed from the radar observations and images from a web camera located in the village Hvolsvöllur at 34 km distance from the volcano. This paper presents the independent radar and web camera time series and performs cross validation. The echo top radar series of the altitude of the volcanic plume are publicly available from the Pangaea Publishing Network (http://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.760690).

Estimation of volcanic ash emissions through assimilating satellite data and ground‐based observations

“…Plume height (echo top altitude) is calculated from the volume reflectivity data with a lowest‐altitude limitation of 2.9 km, which is archived at the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO). Figure a shows the time series and the 6 h averages constructed from the radar detected echo tops by IMO, taken from Arason et al []. These PH data will be used in the twin experiment in section 5.…”

“…Additional information of (a) plume height obtained from a weather radar used for the twin experiment, taken from Arason et al [] and (b) eruption source parameters used for the field data experiment, taken from Gudmundsson et al []. The 5 min time series of the echo top radar data of the eruption plume altitude (km) (Figure a, top).…”

“…Information about the plume height (PH) and the mass eruption rate (MER) are available for some extensively monitored volcanoes from ground‐based, airborne, and spaceborne measurements. PH can be observed from the ground by weather radar, Lidar, and webcam [ Lacasse et al , ; Arason et al , ; Mona et al , ; Flentje et al , ; Ansmann et al , ]. Aircrafts and weather balloons have provided in situ measurements of PH with high temporal resolution and accuracy [ Weber et al , ; Petäjä et al , ].…”

How accurate are volcanic ash simulations of the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption?

“…The ESPs are as follows: plume rise height, vertical ash emission profile, particle size distribution, ash density, and mass eruption rate. The plume rise height input is taken from measurements provided by the Icelandic Meteorological Office's C‐band radar [ Arason et al , ]. The plume height from the radar varies on a range of timescales from minutes to hours.…”

Novel Applications of Micro/Nanostructured Volcanic Ash for Water Purification and Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

“…The emission of volcanic ash may reach high concentrations and have long residence times in the atmosphere (Dingwell and Rutgersson 2014) that may affect aviation. It was noted that during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in April 2010; the air traffic in Europe was disrupted for several days (Arason, Petersen, and Bjornsson 2011;Gislason et al 2011). Hence, the early estimation of volcanic ash from eruptions is important.…”