References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-7-5093-2007

Long range transport and fate of a stratospheric volcanic cloud from Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat

Prata

A. J.

¹ Carn

S. A.

² Stohl

¹ Kerkmann

Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), P.O. Box 100, 2027 Kjeller, Norway

Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET), University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD 21250, USA

European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT), Am Kavalleriesand 31, 64295 Darmstadt, Germany

04 10 2007

7 19 5093 5103

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/5093/2007/acp-7-5093-2007.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/7/5093/2007/acp-7-5093-2007.pdf

Volcanic eruptions emit gases, ash particles and hydrometeors into the atmosphere, occasionally reaching heights of 20 km or more, to reside in the stratospheric overworld where they affect the radiative balance of the atmosphere and the Earth's climate. Here we use satellite measurements and a Lagrangian particle dispersion model to determine the mass loadings, vertical penetration, horizontal extent, dispersion and transport of volcanic gases and particles in the stratosphere from the volcanic cloud emitted during the 20 May 2006 eruption of Soufrière Hills volcano, Montserrat, West Indies. Infrared, ultraviolet and microwave radiation measurements from two polar orbiters are used to quantify the gases and particles, and track the movement of the cloud for 23 days, over a distance of ~18 000 km. Approximately, 0.1±0.01 Tg(S) was injected into the stratosphere in the form of SO2: the largest single sulphur input to the stratosphere in 2006. Microwave Limb Sounder measurements indicate an enhanced mass of HCl of ~0.003–0.01 Tg. Geosynchronous satellite data reveal the rapid nature of the stratospheric injection and indicate that the eruption cloud contained ~2 Tg of ice, with very little ash reaching the stratosphere. These new satellite measurements of volcanic gases and particles can be used to test the sensitivity of climate to volcanic forcing and assess the impact of stratospheric sulphates on climate cooling.

References 1

Barton, I. J., Prata, A. J., Watterson, I. G., and Young, S. A.: Identification of the Mt Hudson volcanic cloud over SE Australia, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19, 1211–1214, 1992.

Bluth, G. J. S., Schnetzler, C. C., Krueger, A. J., and Walter, L. S.: The contribution of explosive volcanism to global atmospheric sulphur dioxide concentrations, Nature, 366, 327–329, 1993.

Carn, S. A., Krotkov, N. A., Yang, K., Hoff, R. M., Prata, A. J., Krueger, A. J., Loughlin, S. C., and P. F. Levelt: Extended observations of volcanic SO2 and sulphate aerosol in the stratosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 7, 2857–2871, 2007.

Carn, S. A., Strow, L. L., de Souza-Machado, S., Edmonds, Y., and Hannon, S.: Quantifying tropospheric volcanic emissions with AIRS: the 2002 eruption of Mt Etna (Italy), Geophys. Res. Lett., 32(2), L02301, doi:10.1029/2004GL021034, 2005.

Crutzen, P.: Albedo enhancement by stratospheric sulphur injections: A contribution to resolve a policy dilemma?, Climatic Change, 77, 3–4, 211–220, doi:10.1007/s10584-006-9101-y, 2006.

Deirmendjian, D.: Electromagnetic scattering on spherical polydispersions, Elsevier, 290 pp., 1969.

Deshler, T., Andersen-Sprecher, R., Jager, H., Barnes, J., Hofmann, D. J., Clemensha, B., Simonich, D., Osborn, M., Grainger, R. G., and Godin-Beekmann, S.: Trends in the nonvolcanic component of stratospheric aerosol over the period 1971–2004, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D10201, doi:10.1029/2005JD006089, 2006.

Doiron, S. D., Bluth, G. J. S., Schnetzler, C. C., Krueger, A. J., and Walter, L. S.: Transport of Cerro Hudson SO2 clouds, EOS Trans AGU, 72, 489–498, 1991.

Draxler, R. R. and Rolph, G. D.: HYSPLIT (Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory) Model access via NOAA ARL READY Website (http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/hysplit4.html), NOAA Air Resources Laboratory, Silver Spring, MD, USA, 2003.

Edmonds, M., Pyle, D., and Oppenheimer, C.: HCl emissions at Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, West Indies, during a second phase of dome building: November 1999 to October 2000, B. Volcanol., 64, 21–30, 2002.

Froidevaux, L., Livesey, N. J., Read, W. G., et al.: Early Validation Analyses of Atmospheric Profiles From EOS MLS on the Aura Satellite, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 45(5), 1106–1121, 2006.

Gerlach, T. M., Westrich, H. R., and Symonds, R. B.: Pre-eruption vapour in magma of the climactic Mt Pinatubo eruption: Source of the giant stratospheric sulphur dioxide cloud, in: Fire and Mud, Eruptions and Lahars of Mount Pinatubo, Philippines, edited by: Newhall and Punongbayan, University of Washington Press, Seattle, 415–433, 1996.

Guo, S., Bluth, G. J. S., Rose, W. I., Watson, M., and Prata, A. J.: Re-evaluation of SO2 release of the 15 June 1991 Pinatubo eruption using ultraviolet and infrared satellite sensors, Geochem. Geophy. Geosy., 5(4), Q04001, doi:10.1029/2003GC000654, 2004.

Halmer, M. M., Schmincke, H.-U., and Graf, H.-F.: The annual volcanic gas input into the atmosphere, in particular into the stratosphere: a global data set for the past 100 years, J. Volcanol. Geoth. Res., 115, 511–528, 2002.

Hansen, J., Lacsis, A., Ruedy, R., and Sato, M.: Potential climate impact of Mount Pinatubo eruption, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19(2), 21–218, 2002.

Inoue, T.: On the transparent and effective emissivity determination of semitransparent clouds by bispectral measurements in the 10 $\mu $m region, J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn., 63, 88–98, 1985.

Kiehl, J. T. and Briegleb, B. P.: The relative roles of sulphate aerosols and greenhouse gases in climate forcing, Science, 260, 311–314, 1993.

Krotkov, N. A., Carn, S. A., Krueger, A. J., Bhartia, P. K., and Yang, K.: Band Residual Difference algorithm for retrieval of SO2 from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), IEEE T. Geosci. Remote Sensing, 44(5), 1259–1266, doi:10,1109/TGRS.2005.861932, 2006.

Krueger, A. J., Walter, L. S., Bhartia, P. K., Schnetzler, C. C., Krotkov, N. A., Sprod, I., and Bluth, G. J. S.: Volcanic sulphur dioxide measurements from the total ozone mapping spectrometer instruments, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 14 057–14 076, 1995.

Mankin, W. G., Coffey, M. T., Goldman, A.: Airborne observations of SO2, HCl, and O3 in the stratospheric plume of the Pinatubo volcano in July 1991, Geophys. Res. Lett., 19(2), 179–182, 1992.

McGonigle, A. J. S., Oppenheimer, C., Galle, B., Mather, T. A, and Pyle, D. M.: Walking traverse and scanning DOAS measurements of volcanic gas emission rates, Geophys. Res. Lett., 29(20), 1985, doi:10.1029/2002GL015827, 2002.

Parol, F., Buriez, J. C., Brogniez, G., and Fouquart, Y.: Information content of AVHRR channels 4 and 5 with respect to the effective radius of cirrus cloud particles, J. Appl. Meteorol., 30, 973–984, 1991.

Prata, A. J.: Infrared radiative transfer calculations for volcanic ash clouds, Geophys. Res. Lett., 16(11), 1293–1296, 1989.

Prata, A. J. and Barton, I. J.: A multichannel, multiangle method for the determination of infrared optical depth of semi-transparent high cloud from an orbiting satellite, Part 1: Formulation and simulation, J. Appl. Meteorol., 32, 1623–1637, 1993.

Prata, A. J. and Bernardo, C.: Retrieval of volcanic SO2 column abundance from AIRS data, J. Geophys. Res., in press, 2007.

Prata, A. J. and Grant, I. F.: Retrieval of microphysical and morphological properties of volcanic ash plumes from satellite data: Application to Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 127, 2153–2179, 2001.

Prata, A. J. and Kerkmann, J.: Simultaneous retrieval of volcanic ash and SO2 using MSG-SEVIRI measurements, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L05813, doi:10.1029/2006GL028691, 2007.

Prata, A. J., O'Brien, D. M., Rose, W. I., and Self, S.: Global, long-term sulphur dioxide measurements from TOVS data: A new tool for studying explosive volcanism and climate, Volcanism and the Earth's Atmosphere, Geophysical Monograph, 139, 75–92, doi:10.1029/139GM05, 2003.

Robock, A.: Climatic impact of volcanic emissions, in: State of the Planet, edited by: Sparks, R. S. J. and Hawkesworth, C. J., Geophysical Monograph, 150, IUGG Volume 19, (American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC), 125–134, 2004.

Robock, A.: Volcanoes and Climate, Rev. Geophys., 38(2), 191–219, 2000.

Rosenfeld, D.: Suppression of rain and snow by urban and industrial air pollution, Science, 287, 1793–1796, 2000.

Rose, W. I., Delene, D. J., Schneider, D. J., Bluth, G. J. S., Krueger, A. J., Sprod, I., McKee, C., Davies, H. L., and Ernst, G. G. J.: Ice in the 1994 Rabaul eruption cloud: Implications for volcano hazard and atmospheric effects, Nature, 375, 477–479, 1995.

Rose, W. I., Millard, G. A., Mather, T. A., et al.: The atmospheric chemistry of a 33–34 hour old volcanic cloud from Hekla Volcano (Iceland): Insights from direct sampling and the application of chemical box modeling, J. Geophys. Res., 111, D20206, doi:10.1029/2005JD006872, 2006.

Schoeberl, M. R., Doiron, S. D., Lait, L. R., Newman, P. A., and Krueger, A. J.: A Simulation of the Cerro Hudson SO2 Cloud, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 2949–2955, 1993.

Stamnes, K., Tsay, S.-C., Wiscombe, W., and K. Jayaweera: Numerically stable algorithm for discrete-ordinate-method radiative transfer in multiple scattering and emitting layered media, Appl. Optics, 27, 2502–2509, 1988.

Stohl, A., Hittenberger, M., and Wotawa, G.: Validation of the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART against large scale tracer experiment data, Atmos. Environ., 32, 4245–4264, 1998.

Stohl, A., Forster, C., Frank, A., Seibert, P., and Wotawa, G.: Technical note: The Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART version 6.2, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 5, 2461–2474, 2005.

Tabazedeh, A. and Turco, R. P.: Stratospheric chlorine injection by volcanic eruptions: HCl scavenging and implications for ozone, Science, 260, 1082–1086, 1993.

Tupper, A., Carn, S. A., Davey, J., Kamada, Y., Potts, R. J., Prata, A. J., and Tokuno, M., An evaluation of volcanic cloud detection techniques during recent significant eruptions in the western "Ring of Fire", Remote Sens. Environ., 91, 27–46, 2004.

Warren, S. G.: Optical constants of ice from the ultraviolet to the microwave, Appl. Optics, 23(8), 1206–1225, 1984.

Waters, J. W., Froidevaux, L., Harwood, R. S., et al.: The Earth Observing System Microwave Limb Sounder (EOS MLS) on the Aura satellite, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote, 44(5), 1075–1092, 2006.

Wen, S. and Rose, W. I.: Retrieval of sizes and total masses of particles in volcanic clouds using AVHRR bands 4 and 5, J. Geophys. Res., 99(D3), 5421–5431, 1994.

Westrich, H. R. and Gerlach, T. M.: Magmatic gas source for the stratospheric SO2 cloud from the 15 June 1991 eruption of Mount Pinatubo, Geology, 20(10), 867–870, doi:10.1130/0091-7613, 1992.

Wigley, T. M. L.: A combined mitigation/geoengineering approach to climate stabilization, Science, 314, 452–454, 2006.

Wu, M.-L.: A method for remote sensing the emissivity, fractional cloud cover and cloud top temperature of high-level, thin cirrus, J. Clim. Appl. Meteorol., 26(2), 225–233, 1987.