IN11D-05:
Volcanic Ash and SO2 Monitoring Using Suomi NPP Direct Broadcast OMPS Data
Monday, 15 December 2014: 9:00 AM
Colin J Seftor1, Nickolay Anatoly Krotkov2, Richard D McPeters1, Jason Y Li3, Kelvin W Brentzel4, Shahid Habib5, Seppo Hassinen6, Thomas A Heinrichs7 and David J Schneider8, (1)NASA Goddard SFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)SSAI, Lanham, MD, United States, (4)NASA GSFC Direct Readout Laboratory, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (5)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (6)Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland, (7)University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, (8)USGS Alaska Science Center, Anchorage, AK, United States
Abstract:
NASA’s Suomi NPP Ozone Science Team, in conjunction with Goddard Space Flight Center's (GSFC’s) Direct Readout Laboratory, developed the capability of processing, in real-time, direct readout (DR) data from the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) to perform SO2 and Aerosol Index (AI) retrievals. The ability to retrieve this information from real-time processing of DR data was originally developed for the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard the Aura spacecraft and is used by Volcano Observatories and Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) charged with mapping ash clouds from volcanic eruptions and providing predictions/forecasts about where the ash will go. The resulting real-time SO2 and AI products help to mitigate the effects of eruptions such as the ones from Eyjafjallajokull in Iceland and Puyehue-Cordón Caulle in Chile, which cause massive disruptions to airline flight routes for weeks as airlines struggle to avoid ash clouds that could cause engine failure, deeply pitted windshields impossible to see through, and other catastrophic events. We will discuss the implementation of real-time processing of OMPS DR data by both the Geographic Information Network of Alaska (GINA) and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), which provide real-time coverage over some of the most congested airspace and over many of the most active volcanoes in the world, and show examples of OMPS DR processing results from recent volcanic eruptions.
