Initializing HYSPLIT with Satellite Observations of Volcanic Ash ARL is investigating the use of satellite information about volcanic ash clouds to improve volcanic ash forecasts made with HYSPLIT. Some of this work has been described in a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmospheres. A. Crawford, B. J. B. Stunder, F. Ngan, M. J.…
Volcanic Ash Model Details Dispersion Simulations Using HYSPLIT HYSPLIT is set to use the same volcanic ash source term and produce look-alike output graphics as VAFTAD (Heffter and Stunder, 1993). The main differences between running HYSPLIT for volcanic ash and running HYSPLIT at the ARL HYSPLIT web page (unregistered or registered) is in the source term (the initial conditions…
Volcanic Ash Modeling History Following the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens, a NOAA – Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Volcanic Hazards Alert became effective in 1988. ARL’s contribution was to provide forecast trajectories. However, trajectories are limited in that they only provide a representation of the transport paths of single…
ARL News National Volcanic Ash Operations Plan August 30, 2007 The Office of the Federal Coordinator for Meteorological Services and Supporting Research (OFCM) will soon publish the “National Volcanic Ash Operations Plan for Aviation and Support of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) International Airways Volcano Watch”. ARL’s role, outlined in the plan, is to…
Volcanic Ash Modeling Mt. Augustine volcanic eruption(Credit: Cyrus Read, U.S. Geological Survey) Volcanic ash is a hazard to aircraft because it can degrade engine performance and navigational and operational instrumentation. Operationally, the NWS runs the ARL-developed HYSPLIT model to forecast the transport and dispersion of volcanic ash in and near the U.S. Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers'(VAAC) (Anchorage,…
On February 28th, the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) International Program Lead for issues such as Volcanic Ash, Karen Shelton-Mur, and people from AvMet Application, Inc., who contract to the FAA for support, visited the NOAA Center for Weather and Climate Prediction to get a tour of the Washington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC). The tour…
From February 9-19, Paul Kelley and Winston Luke traveled to the Big Island of Hawaii to visit the Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO). While there, the two performed semi-annual maintenance, repairs, and calibrations of the trace gas and aerosol monitors; trained a new site operator to operate the instrumentation; and collaborated with Dr. Akane Yamakawa from…
Ariel Stein and Xinrong Ren are among the co-authors of a manuscript titled “Wintertime CO2, CH4 and CO emissions estimation for the Washington DC / Baltimore metropolitan area using an inverse modeling technique” that was accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology. Alice Crawford gave a presentation titled “Volcanic Ash Forecasting for Aviation” to…
ASMD On January 21st, the OAR Portfolio Team will be holding its inaugural Portfolio Seminar entitled “Subseasonal to Seasonal to Decadal: Extreme Heat” in Silver Spring, Maryland. The Portfolio Seminar Series is designed to improve the communication of the unique capabilities of OAR’s labs and programs and foster collaboration at the lab and program staff…
ASMD Tianfeng Chai co-authored “Elucidating emissions control strategies for ozone to protect human health and public welfare within the continental United States,” a paper that was published in the December 23 issue of Environmental Research Letters. The significance of this paper is that quantifying the contribution of reductions in ozone precursor emissions from each location…