Publication Date:
2017-04-04
Description:
In the last twelve years, Mt. Etna, located in eastern Sicily, has produced a great
number of explosive eruptions. Volcanic plumes have risen to several km above sea level
and created problems for aviation and the communities living near the volcano. A reduction
of hazards may be accomplished using remote sensing techniques to evaluate important
features of volcanic plumes. Since 2000, the Multiangle Imaging SpectroRadiometer
(MISR) on board NASA’s Terra spacecraft has been extensively used to study aerosol
dispersal and to extract the three-dimensional structure of plumes coming from
anthropogenic or natural sources, including volcanoes. In the present work, MISR data
from several explosive events occurring at Etna are analyzed using a program named
MINX (MISR INteractive eXplorer). MINX uses stereo matching techniques to evaluate
the height of the volcanic aerosol with a precision of a few hundred meters, and extracts
aerosol properties from the MISR Standard products. We analyzed twenty volcanic plumes
produced during the 2000, 2001, 2002–03, 2006 and 2008 Etna eruptions, finding that
volcanic aerosol dispersal and column height obtained by this analysis is in good
agreement with ground-based observations. MISR aerosol type retrievals: (1) clearly
distinguish volcanic plumes that are sulphate and/or water vapor dominated from
ash-dominated ones; (2) detect even low concentrations of volcanic ash in the atmosphere;
(3) demonstrate that sulphate and/or water vapor dominated plumes consist of
smaller-sized particles compared to ash plumes. This work highlights the potential of
MISR to detect important volcanic plume characteristics that can be used to constrain
the eruption source parameters in volcanic ash dispersion models. Further, the possibility
of discriminating sulphate and/or water vapor dominated plumes from ash-dominated
ones is important to better understand the atmospheric impact of these plumes
Description:
Published
Description:
D06210
Description:
1.5. TTC - Sorveglianza dell'attività eruttiva dei vulcani
Description:
JCR Journal
Description:
restricted
Keywords:
volcanic ash plume
;
MISR
;
01. Atmosphere::01.01. Atmosphere::01.01.99. General or miscellaneous
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
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