NASA SUOMI NPP: Data Mitigating aviation related volcanic hazards

This image from SUOMI NPP satellite shows ash trajectories over Iceland on May 6, 2010, created by the Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR). 

Credit: STAR

SUOMI NPP, a joint NOAA/NASA satellite is one of several satellites providing valuable information to aviators about volcanic hazards.

An aviation "orange" alert was posted on August 18, 2014, for Bárðarbunga, a stratovolcano located under the Vatnajökull glacier in Iceland, indicating the "volcano shows heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption."

Much of the information leading to that alert came from satellites including Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/NASA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP).

While the Vatnajökull ice cap and its seismic activity has been gradually increasing over the past seven years, these recent events in Iceland are reminiscent of the destructive aftermath from the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland.

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption caused a six-day travel ban over the controlled airspace of many European countries.

Data from NOAA satellites were used in the volcanic ash detection and property retrieval algorithm to create products to be used by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAAC), including the London VAAC.

The data given to the air traffic control organizations provided the information they needed to make the decision to divert and ground more than 4,000 flights.

The ban was in effect to address the possibility of volcanic ash ejection causing damage to aircraft engines and risking human life.

This was the largest air-traffic shut down since World War II, costing $1.7 billion in losses for the airline industry, as well as innumerable losses within freight imports and exports; tourism industries and the access to fresh food and essential goods.

The MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured this view of the eruption Iceland's Bárðarbunga Volcano on Sept. 5, 2014. 

The red outline indicates heat. 

A plume of gas and steam is blowing east. 

Credit: Jeff Schmaltz/NASA MODIS Rapid Response

Recently, Mike Pavolonis, is a NOAA scientist from the Center for Satellite Applications and Research (STAR) presented his work on How Weather Satellites are Mitigating Aviation-related Volcanic Hazards during a NOAA event.

"Only 10 percent of the world's volcanoes are routinely monitored from the ground, making satellites the only frequently available tool that can reliably identify volcanic eruptions anywhere in the world," Pavolonis said.

Advanced analysis of data from polar orbiting and geostationary satellites reduces the probability of a disastrous and/or costly aircraft encounter with volcanic ash and helps to minimize the cost associated with avoiding volcanic ash.

He highlighted how volcanic ash can severely impact air travel, melting in a plane engine's combustion chamber and even shutting the engine down completely.

This occurred in June 1982, when a British Airways B747 aircraft flew into a volcanic ash cloud from Mount Galunggung (Indonesia) and lost power in all four engines.

They dropped from 37,000 feet to 12,000 feet before three engines were restarted and the plane was able to make an emergency landing in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The pilots were unable to see the ash on their radar. Thick, billowing ash clouds from volcanoes often spread out over large areas, well beyond the erupting volcano. Aircraft close calls with volcanic ash have continued over the years.

The STAR volcanic ash algorithm takes data from satellites to create actionable information that can assist in advanced warning of volcanic eruptions and ash detection.

The addition of the VIIRS instrument aboard the NOAA/NASA Suomi NPP satellite to the STAR volcanic cloud analysis system, has proven to be vital for detecting and characterizing small scale thermal signatures and clouds associated with volcanic activity.

These thermal signals can be a precursor to an explosive eruption.

The VIIRS instrument is suited to detect the relatively unique spectral signature difference of volcanic clouds often absorb and reflect radiation as a function of wavelength in a manner that is very different from other cloud types.

Future plans include incorporating information from Suomi NPP's Cross-track Infrared Sounder (CrIS) and the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) instruments into the algorithm.

NOAA's polar satellites are critical for a variety of "nowcasting" capabilities in addition to volcanic ash including imagery to monitor storms, fog, sea ice, and other dangerous weather and environmental conditions as well as providing data for more accurate weather forecasting to secure a more 'Weather-Ready Nation' thereby saving lives and protecting property.

Shipping Alert: Underwater volcano creates huge floating islands of rock

Havre pumice raft drifting in the Pacific. The scale bar is 20km. 

Credit: Nature Communications

A team of scientists from the UK, the US, Australia and New Zealand have modelled the fate of a huge floating raft of volcanic rocks that formed in 2012 during a submarine eruption of a Pacific volcano.

Described in this month's edition of Nature Communications, they show how satellite images of the floating-rock raft's passage across the Pacific can be used to test models of ocean circulation.

Their results could be used to forecast the dispersal of future pumice (volcanic rock) islands, and protect shipping from the hazards they pose.

The eruptions of the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, in 2010 brought the hazards associated with volcanic ash sharply into focus.

Air routes across northern Europe were disrupted, leaving many passengers stranded and far from home for days on end.

Ocean hazard
Hazards of floating islands of pumice spewed into the ocean from erupting volcanoes, are less well-known as a shipping hazard.

One such island grew from an explosion of the Havre volcano (seamount) in the South Pacific, between Tonga and New Zealand, in July 2012.

The volcano threw out a cubic kilometre of molten magma, which suddenly froze to form bubble-filled pumice.

Floating pumice. 

Credit: Jeff Butterworth

It is the bubbles trapped in pumice that make it so light, half the density of water, so the rock floats on water.

Like natural flotsam, pebble to boulder-sized lumps of pumice clump together.

This can create huge floating rafts in the seas around erupting volcanoes, and they can be tens of centimetres thick but thousands of kilometres in length.

Records of the use of pumice exist since the time of the Romans and Ancient Greeks. Its rough texture made them effective abrasives to remove dead skin from calluses and corns.

However, now, such floating pumice can pose a hazard for shipping. Hulls can be damaged by abrasion from the hard but light pumice, and when it approaches land these pumice rafts can block harbours and disrupt navigation.

Havre's pumice island affected an area of ocean twice as big as both islands of New Zealand put together, floating atop the sea.

Boats entering the volcanic debris reported engine problems, as the rock and dust clogged their water cooling intakes.

The study, led by Martin Jutzeler at the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, UK, shows how the rafts eventually break up into ribbons of rock that can cover a wide area.

The simulation techniques that the team has developed will allow the progress of future volcanic rafts to be predicted, and warnings issued to shipping, in the same way as volcanic ash clouds can be forecast for aircraft approaching stratospheric eruptions.

Read the full article here

NASA Earth Observatory image: Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull Volcano, Iceland

Iceland’s Eyjafjallajökull Volcano burst into life for the first time in 190 years on March 20, 2010.

A 500-meter- (2,000-foot) long fissure opened in the Fimmvörduháls pass to the west of the ice-covered summit of Eyjafjallajökull.

Lava fountains erupted fluid magma, which quickly built several hills of bubble-filled lava rocks (scoria) along the vent. A lava flow spread northeast, spilling into Hrunagil Gully.

This natural-colour satellite image shows lava fountains, lava flows, a volcanic plume, and steam from vapourised snow. The image was acquired on March 24, 2010, by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard NASA’s Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.

The lava fountains are orange-red, barely visible at the 10-meter (33-foot) resolution of the satellite.

The scoria cones surrounding the fissure are black, as is the lava flow extending to the northeast. White volcanic gases escape from the vent and erupting lava, while a steam plume rises where the hot lava meets snow. (The bright green colour along the edge of the lava flow is an artifact of the sensor.)



Click on the image above to see the full size version.

The eruption of Eyjafjallajökull was presaged by a series of earthquakes starting in early March. Over time, the earthquakes rose towards the surface, and land near the volcano rose at least 40 millimeters (2 inches)—both indications that magma was moving underneath the volcano. The eruption may continue for several more months.

Previous eruptions in the area have caused flooding due to the melting of glacial ice (a Jökulhlaup), but the current eruption is in an area covered by winter snow, not permanent ice.

Although some past eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull were followed by larger, explosive eruptions at nearby Katla Volcano, there is currently no sign of activity at Katla.