ABSTRACT
Airborne volcanic ash particles are a known hazard to aviation. Currently, there are no means available to detect ash in flight as the particles are too fine (radii < 30 µm) for on-board radar detection and, even in good visibility, ash clouds are difficult or impossible to detect by eye. The economic cost and societal impact of the April/May 2010 Icelandic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull generated renewed interest in finding ways to identify airborne volcanic ash in order to keep airspace open and avoid aircraft groundings. We have designed and built a bi-spectral, fast-sampling, uncooled infrared camera device (AVOID) to examine its ability to detect volcanic ash from commercial jet aircraft at distances of more than 50 km ahead. Here we report results of an experiment conducted over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of France, confirming the ability of the device to detect and quantify volcanic ash in an artificial ash cloud created by dispersal of volcanic ash from a second aircraft. A third aircraft was used to measure the ash in situ using optical particle counters. The cloud was composed of very fine ash (mean radii ~10 µm) collected from Iceland immediately after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption and had a vertical thickness of ~200 m, a width of ~2 km and length of between 2 and 12 km. Concentrations of ~200 µg m(-3) were identified by AVOID at distances from ~20 km to ~70 km. For the first time, airborne remote detection of volcanic ash has been successfully demonstrated from a long-range flight test aircraft.
ABSTRACT
In the lowermost layer of the atmosphere-the troposphere-ozone is an important source of the hydroxyl radical, an oxidant that breaks down most pollutants and some greenhouse gases. High concentrations of tropospheric ozone are toxic, however, and have a detrimental effect on human health and ecosystem productivity. Moreover, tropospheric ozone itself acts as an effective greenhouse gas. Much of the present tropospheric ozone burden is a consequence of anthropogenic emissions of ozone precursors resulting in widespread increases in ozone concentrations since the late 1800s. At present, east Asia has the fastest-growing ozone precursor emissions. Much of the springtime east Asian pollution is exported eastwards towards western North America. Despite evidence that the exported Asian pollution produces ozone, no previous study has found a significant increase in free tropospheric ozone concentrations above the western USA since measurements began in the late 1970s. Here we compile springtime ozone measurements from many different platforms across western North America. We show a strong increase in springtime ozone mixing ratios during 1995-2008 and we have some additional evidence that a similar rate of increase in ozone mixing ratio has occurred since 1984. We find that the rate of increase in ozone mixing ratio is greatest when measurements are more heavily influenced by direct transport from Asia. Our result agrees with previous modelling studies, which indicate that global ozone concentrations should be increasing during the early part of the twenty-first century as a result of increasing precursor emissions, especially at northern mid-latitudes, with western North America being particularly sensitive to rising Asian emissions. We suggest that the observed increase in springtime background ozone mixing ratio may hinder the USA's compliance with its ozone air quality standard.
