Publication Date:
2024-03-19
Description:
Volcanic eruptions pose a major natural hazard influencing the environment, climate and
human beings at different temporal and spatial scales. Nevertheless, several volcanoes worldwide
are poorly monitored and assessing the impact of their eruptions remains, in some cases, challenging.
Nowadays, different numerical dispersion models are largely employed in order to evaluate the
potential effects of volcanic plume dispersion due to the transport of ash and gases. On 28 August
2019, both Mt. Etna and Stromboli had eruptive activity; Mt. Etna was characterised by mild-
Strombolian activity at summit craters, while at Stromboli volcano, a paroxysmal event occurred,
which interrupted the ordinary typical-steady Strombolian activity. Here, we explore the spatial
dispersion of volcanic sulphur dioxide (SO2) gas plumes in the atmosphere, at both volcanoes, using
the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) considering the
ground-measured SO2 amounts and the plume-height as time-variable eruptive source parameters.
The performance of WRF-Chem was assessed by cross-correlating the simulated SO2 dispersion
maps with data retrieved by TROPOMI and OMI sensors. The results show a feasible agreement
between the modelled dispersion maps and TROPOMI satellite for both volcanoes, with spatial
pattern retrievals and a total mass of dispersed SO2 of the same order of magnitude. Predicted
total SO2 mass for Stromboli might be underestimated due to the inhibition from ground to resolve
the sin-eruptive SO2 emission due to the extreme ash-rich volcanic plume released during the
paroxysm. This study demonstrates the feasibility of a WRF-Chem model with time-variable ESPs in
simultaneously reproducing two eruptive plumes with different SO2 emission and their dispersion
into the atmosphere. The operational implementation of this method could represent effective support
for the assessment of local-to-regional air quality and flight security and, in case of particularly intense
events, also on a global scale.
Description:
Published
Description:
5727
Description:
OSV2: Complessità dei processi vulcanici: approcci multidisciplinari e multiparametrici
Description:
JCR Journal
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
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