A22D-02
Tropospheric Volcanism and Air-Traffic
Tuesday, 15 December 2015: 10:35
3004 (Moscone West)
Christos S Zerefos1,2, John Kapsomenakis1,2, Vassilis Amiridis3, Stavros Solomos3, Kostas Eleftheratos4, Evangelos Gerasopoulos2,3, Christos Repapis5, Henk Eskes6, Antje Inness7, Emilio Cuevas8 and Pascal Hedelt9, (1)Rsrch Cnter Atmos Phy & Clim, Academy of Athens, Athens, Greece, (2)Navarino Environmental Observatory, Messinia, Greece, (3)National Observatory of Athens, Athens, Greece, (4)Laboratory of Climatology and Atmospheric Environment, University of Athens, Athens, Greece, (5)Mariolopoulos-Kanaginis Foundation for the Environmental Sciences, Athens, Greece, (6)Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands, (7)ECMWF, Reading, United Kingdom, (8)Izana Atmospheric Research Center, AEMET, Tenerife, Spain, (9)Institut für Methodik der Fernerkundung, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Weßling, Germany
Abstract:
Volcanic effects and their consequences have been observed in Europe originating either from European (Icelandic, Italy) or from distant large volcanic eruptions (e.g. Kasatochi in the Aleutians and Africa). The interference of the volcanic plumes with air traffic corridors have been noticed and studied thoroughly in the case of 2010 eruptions of Eyafallajökull. There have been similar eruptions that have not interfered with air traffic in the past decade such as the recent Bárðarbunga (September 2014) whose forward trajectories where below 6000m. The present study aims at looking for evidence of columnar SO2 amounts that have followed excursions from Icelandic and volcanic eruptions of importance to Europe in general. Columnar SO2 records from remote sensing spectrophotometers over Europe and from space as well as simulated by models have been compared. The columnar SO2 measurements are also compared with ground based SO2 monitors from the Airbase dataset. Finally the impact of the above mentioned volcanic eruptions in air traffic is assessed. The atmospheric effects when air traffic was shut down seem both inside and outside of major air corridors is studied and compared to both case studies and long-term changes in contrails.
