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,…
ARL Weekly News – June 11, 2021 Recent Events Boundary Layer Workshop Temple Lee, Michael Buban, LaToya Myles, Bruce Baker, and Rick Saylor participated in the Second Boundary Layer Workshop, hosted by Tilden Meyers and David Turner on 1-2 June. The workshop sought to prioritize scientific questions associated with the atmospheric boundary layer and to…
2020 HYSPLIT Accomplishments and Notable Use Cases January 21, 2020 2020 Accomplishments in HYSPLIT Development Record Number of HYSPLIT runs in 2020 The ARL developed HYSPLIT tool for atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling hosted over 2 million runs in 2020. The 2,055,410 simulations on the READY server marks a 34% increase from the previous year.…
ARL Researchers Head to AMS Meeting. January 7, 2021 The American Meteorological Society (AMS) will host its 101st annual conference virtually from January 10-15, 2021. A number of ARL researchers contributed papers on topics ranging from climate observations to boundary layer and atmospheric chemistry and dispersion. A few key ARL led or coauthored papers include:…
ARL Weekly News – December 18, 2020 Recent Events ARL Use of Small Uncrewed Aerial Systems Described in “Inside Unmanned Systems” An interview with Bruce Baker in the December/January issue of Inside Unmanned Systems describes ARL’s use of small uncrewed aerial systems to measure the planetary boundary layer. These uncrewed vehicles, or drones, are used…
Air Resources Laboratory at AGU Fall Meeting December 1, 2020 Margaret Simon Southern Manhattan, Brooklyn Bridge taken during a flight over the East River on April 28, 2020. Credit: NOAA The American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting will be held December 1-17, 2020. Originally planned for San Francisco, but virtual for 2020, AGU is the largest…