This image, acquired on 15 April 2010 by Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth.
An enlarged view and story follows.
It seems the Volcano has accomplished what the nutballs of “Plane Stupid” could not – shut down UK airports, including Heathrow.
Flights have been disrupted across northern Europe by volcanic ash drifting south and east from Iceland.
Airspace was closed or flights cancelled in countries including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and France.
The ash, which can damage aeroplane engines, was produced by a volcanic eruption under a glacier in Iceland.
Flooding was reported as the glacier melted, and up to 800 people were evacuated from the area on Wednesday.
By Thursday afternoon, the UK had shut its airspace and other countries, from Belgium to Scandinavia, were in the process of following suit.
‘Wait and see’
UK airspace was shut down to all but emergency flights from midday (1100 GMT) on Thursday to 0700 BST (0600 GMT) on Friday, at the earliest. It was also closed in Ireland.
“Volcanic ash represents a significant safety threat to aircraft,” said the UK’s Air Traffic Control Service (Nats).
Airspace closed:
Oslo airport, which is Norway’s largest, was closed on Thursday morning, meaning Norwegian airspace was completely closed.
Belgium, Sweden and Denmark announced they would be shutting their entire airspace, northern Finland was closed and the Netherlands was being closed progressively.
French aviation officials said on Thursday afternoon that the main airports in Paris and other airports in the north of the country were to be closed.
more here
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Is there a way a tax can be levied on this pollution? Man made global warming carries the blame if this increases CO2 or aerosols.
Pele joins forces with Plane Stupid. Plane Stupid has been celebrating getting the new Heathrow runway shut down. They should be thrilled to have all the runways shut down now!
http://www.planestupid.com/
Last time this volcano erupted 200 years ago, the eruption lasted more than a year. Will that mess up Plane Stupid’s plans to shut down the Glasgow airport in October?
“Call out for public shut down of Glasgow airport on October 10”
http://www.planestupid.com/blogs/2010/04/1/we-will-shut-down-glasgow-airport
I though we asked the Icelanders to send us cash 🙂
“This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore. Gore in an 11/12/09 interview on NBC’s tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, speaking on geothermal energy, champion of slide show science, can’t even get the temperature of earth’s mantle right, claiming “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”. Oh, and the “crust of the earth is hot” too.”
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/16/gore-has-no-clue-a-few-million-degrees-here-and-there-and-pretty-soon-were-talking-about-real-temperature/
So much heat so close to the surface, this is predicted by the grand Pubbah of warmists.
Because we sell electric heaters in the U.S.A. and Canada, we are watching the Iceland volcano event very carefully. We believe the likelihood of another year long global cooling event like during the Mt. Pinatubo eruption has increased because of what is and might happen in Iceland. And it could contribute to a Dalton or even Maunder type decades long event. (In addition to ocean currents, other volcanic eruptions, solar minimum, etc.) Many more brutal winters coming? Siberia just had one of its coldest winters ever. In the U.S.A. 2009-2010 winter was top ten coldest going back to the 1800’s and the snowiest winter since 1978. North American snow cover broke it’s all time record. We experienced a large demand for freeze protection products from the southern states and are preparing for the worst.
Earthquakes, tsunamis, plates´ movements, volcanic eruptions (like VEI=6 Huaynaputina volcano during the Maunder Minimum) are characteristic of Solar Minimums. Enjoy the ride!
Interesting times indeed!, Icelanders still expecting for the Katta volcano eruption to follow current volcanic eruptions.
Will this put humongous amounts of SO2 in the atmosphere? Along with the particulates, it looks like more global cooling could be in our future.
[snip]
“Denialists” is not acceptable here. Take it elsewhere. ~dbstealey, mod.
REPLY: It’s OK, Peter knows no other lifestyle beyond sniping and complaining. It’s his nature.
But since he has nothing to back up his complaint, I’ll back up mine, and say again they are “nutballs” see links below
“planestupid” kills polar bears via CGI to make a point
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/11/21/planestupid-kills-polar-bears-via-cgi-to-make-a-point/
Plane Stupid leader glues himself to the Prime Minister
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/01/01/an-opportunity-for-europe-in-2009/
Yep, nutballs. Peter, I’m super pleased that you are annoyed. Enjoy the troll bin. -A
Quite dark here in Denmark right now
http://www2.dmu.dk/atmosphericenvironment/Vulkansky/dreameu_ani.gif
Hmm a Pinatubo scale volcanic event with ash and aerosols spread through lower stratosphere and upper troposphere combined with already weakening tail end of El-nino (swinging over into La Nina?) and a new long period low amplitude solar cycle 24 could make winters interesting over the next few years and even the coming NH summer……
I was also interested in seeing temps over the next 5 years without significant volcanic cooling because if Svensmark and GCR advocates are right we would possibly see some cooling with weak solar geomagnetic solar cycle but now we will see volcanic noise on the signal to confuse the situation. Will we have to wait some years longer to find out now if temps were going to plateau and/or cool without volcanic influences?
If temps rise in this scenario to a new peak > 1998 peak I would be surprised and have to lean towards GHGs being a significant concern.
Maybe arctic will exceed 6mil km minimum summer extent this year under these circumstances?
It’s all very fascinating!
O to be in England, now that April’s here !
The difference is because ‘denier’ comes from ‘holocaust denier’ which is quite insulting because it implies not only ignorance but racism and sympathy for the people who carried out the holocaust.
Interesting and annoying for other countries, but is there really anything Iceland can do about this? It’s not like you can control volcanoes.
Exactly what the Warmists had been hoping for. The obvious cooling of the last 2 years (otherwise known as the hottest years in the history of the world by Warmists and their enablers) can now be attributed to volcanic ash. Whew. Just in time to save them from reality.
I live in the North of England, and I am keeping a close eye on my canary !
Given that this eruption will depress ‘raw’ temperatures, can we anticipate a significant upward correction be applied to the quality controlled temperature records (sorry, products) created by CRU, GISS etc because of this event?
Also, it is worth noting that the causative link between global warming and volcanic eruptions has not gone unnoticed:
http://www.thedailygreen.com/environmental-news/latest/6660
‘Global Warming Could Trigger Volcanic Eruptions
Climate Change and the Apocalyptic Chain Reaction’
Of course, if only we had sacrificed more, we would have been spared. (Al Gore was right, but we could not come up with the protection money in time).
I wanna stake my claim here to previous postings: Abnormal solar Geomagnetic status is affecting tectonic plate movement on earth. Lucky a 9+ R has not occurred in LA area yet…after the usual 9+ in Chile (occurs every 30-40 years). Just speculation of course… but what else is there to explain all the heightened volcanoes, earthquakes etc?
Well, I’m packing my car and heading for the hills right now. Only with camera gear though and the hope of getting some nice sunset shots.
This blog has been discussing the ongoing activity and it’s fascinating:
http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/
They don’t seem to believe it represents any immediate climatic shift given it doesn’t appear to be outputting much SO2, or ejecting it high enough. They’re also stressing the flouride cautions are local warnings, so basically no need to panic, yet.
I just received a tweet saying that at Orlando airport all United flights overseas are cancelled because of the volcanic ash. I haven’t confirmed this yet, and it does seem odd.
Anyone have any updated info?
Tenuc (09:35:09) :
I though we asked the Icelanders to send us cash 🙂
Cash… ash… An honest mistake.
All those airports closed, with likely more to come?
Volcano > Terrorism
Ah heck, let’s really put it in perspective:
Nature > Terrorism
Which is more likely to disrupt your life, to kill you, suddenly, seemingly randomly? (Although not maintaining “awareness of your surroundings” can be cited as worsening your odds for both.)
Figure everything together, and it’s clear “the Mother Earth that loves me” is the one I should fear the most!
We live in Scotland and on the way back from the DIY shop I suddenly realised the bus I was following was kicking up clouds of dust. Looking closer the road had a distinctive tramway going down the road. This could just be normal dust, or perhaps agriculture, but I’m not aware of anything!
For more information on the eruption have a look at this site:
http://www.newsmice.com/show.php?id=256
The volcano is erupting under a glacier. The vast melting and run off have increased river levels by up to 3 metres/10 feet. Villagers have been evacuated.
Oh dear, the glaciers are melting, the sea level is rising, wildlife endangered, risk of flooding increased, people having to be evacuated, whole of UK airspace closed…of course, if man did such a thing there would be a heck of complaint by the green lobby; but if old mother Gaia does it, that’s all just fine and dandy. Mother earth is angry! You must atone for your sins by buying carbon indulgences.
Clearly the people of Iceland owe the other Europeans some form of subsidy for polluting the Europeans air so wantonly. It’s Climate Imperialism I tell you.
If this eruption continues for some time it will have an effect on global temps.
Ask AL BABY (AKA:EL GORDO), Nobel Prize winner and illuminated post normal climatic scientist, HOW MANY SUV EXAUSTS WOULD EQUAL, AND IN HOW MANY HUNDREDS OF YEARS, the SO2 gases emitted by this single volcano?