Volcanic eruption detection by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments: a 22-year record of sulphur dioxide and ash emissions

Abstract

Since their first deployment in November 1978, the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instruments have provided a robust and near-continuous record of sulphur dioxide (SO2) and ash emissions from active volcanoes worldwide. Data from the four TOMS satellites that have flown to date have been analysed with the latest SO2/ash algorithms and incorporated into a TOMS volcanic emissions database that presently covers 22 years of SO2 and ash emissions. The 1978-2001 record comprises 102 eruptions from 61 volcanoes, resulting in 784 days of volcanic cloud observations. Regular eruptions of Nyamuragira (DR Congo) since 1978, accompanied by copious SO2 production, have contributed material on approximately 30% of the days on which clouds were observed. The latest SO2 retrieval results from Earth Probe (EP) TOMS document a period (1996)(1997)(1998)(1999)(2000)(2001) lacking large explosive eruptions, and also dominated by SO2 emission from four eruptions of Nyamuragira. EP TOMS has detected the SO2 and ash produced during 23 eruptions from 15 volcanoes to date, with volcanic clouds observed on 158 days. The EP TOMS instrument began to degrade in 2001, but has now stabilized, although its planned successor (QuikTOMS) recently failed to achieve orbit. New SO2 algorithms are currently being developed for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument, which will continue the TOMS record of UV remote sensing of volcanic emissions from 2004 onwards.Volcanic eruptions vary greatly in style, duration and vigour, but all sub-aerial eruptions involve the emplacement of material, typically including water vapour and other gases, silicate ash, and aerosols, into the atmosphere above the eruption vent. The detection, analysis and tracking of the ensuing volcanic clouds and plumes is crucial for effective mitigation of volcanic hazards such as airborne ash (e.g. Casadevall 1994), understanding of magmatic degassing processes (e.g. Scaillet et al. 1998;Wallace 2001) and quantify-

Evaluation of GEOS-5 sulfur dioxide simulations during the Frostburg, MD 2010 field campaign

“…We assume 3 % of the SO 2 anthropogenic emissions are directly emitted as sulfate. All the simulations include also biomass burning emissions of SO 2 following the Quick Fire Emission Dataset (QFED) inventory and SO 2 emissions from continuously eruptive volcanoes that are based on data from the Global Volcanism Program database (Siebert et al, 2002) SO 2 retrievals (Carn et al, 2003;Krotkov et al, 2006) while emissions from explosive volcanoes follow the Aerocom inventories (Dentener et al, 2006). SO 2 is removed in the atmosphere by dry and wet deposition and oxidized to sulfate by chemical reaction.…”

The Surveillance of the Air Quality in the Vicinity of an Active Volcano : Case of the Piton de la Fournaise .

“…The Surveillance of the Air Quality in the Vicinity of an Active Volcano: Case of the Piton de la Fournaise 213 following the eruptions were analysed (Carn et al, 2003Yang et al, 2007;Bhugwant et al, 2009). …”

Improving global detection of volcanic eruptions using the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI)

“…The capability of satellitebased volcanic SO 2 detection was first demonstrated following the eruption of El Chichón in 1982 (Krueger, 1983), leading to the implementation of satellite-based UV measurements as a volcano monitoring tool (Schneider et al, 1999;Krueger et al, 2008;Carn et al, 2016). The low spatial resolution of the TOMS instruments precluded the measurement of SO 2 in small volcanic eruptions (Carn et al, 2003). OMI's higher spatial resolution (13 × 24 km at nadir) permits detection of smaller eruptions and passive volcanic degassing of SO 2 , whilst providing daily, global coverage (Krotkov et al, 2006;Carn et al, 2013Carn et al, , 2016.…”