Eruption of volcano Eyjafjalla 2010

Dispersion of the dust cloud over Europe

Episode: Wed 14 Apr 00:00 UTC - Wed 26 May 23:00 UTC

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These movies try to illustrate the dispersion of mineral dust particles (representing the particle components in the volcanic ash cloud) over Europe at 3 and 5 km height, respectively. The emitted amount is estimated, while assuming a permanent activity since April 14, 05:00 UTC. Injection height and absolute emissions are estimated with the PLUMERIA-Model and according to VAAC issued advisories .

Observations are presently being collected in the frame of the MACC project for validation of the simulations. Fig. 1 displays exceptionally high values of SO₂ and number density of particles with a diameter of 10 nm or more during afternoon-evening hours of April 17 and 19 on the Zugspitze (47°25' N, 10°59' E, southern German alpine border). Our simulation reproduces these peaks, showing a temporally corresponding first filament hit and a second maximum by recoiling aged ash clouds, both at times of observed peaks.

Fig.1: Measurements of SO₂ mass mixing ratio and number concentrations of particles at Schneefernerhaus, Zugspitze (Courtesy of Hohenpeissenberg Observatory of the German Weather Service (DWD))
Contact for MACC-Data: Anja Werner
Contact for data from Zugspitze: Stefan Gilge

The simulations are produced at the Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research (RIU) in cooperation with Research Centre Jülich.

Elmar Friese¹, Lars Nieradzik^1,2 , Achim Strunk¹ und Hendrik Elbern^1,2
1 Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung an der Universität zu Köln
² ICG-2 Forschungszentrum Jülich