From ESA (zoomed image below the read more line)
New satellite image of ash spewing from Iceland’s volcano
19 April 2010
In this image taken [at] (14:45 CET) by ESA’s Envisat satellite, a heavy plume of ash from the Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano is seen travelling in a roughly southeasterly direction.
The volcano has been emitting steam and ash since its recent eruptions began on 20 March, and as observable, the emissions continue. The plume, visible in brownish-grey, is approximately 400 km long. Envisat’s Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer instrument (MERIS) acquired this image on 19 April, while working in Full Resolution Mode to provide a spatial resolution of 300 m.
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Here is a zoomed image
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Still huge amounts of steam. High silica. Given the water content, I would say that this is a minor eruption so far. All show, no lava.
Here is a wider shot from the Aqua/MODIS:
http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/realtime/single.php?A101091305
Shows the volcanic ash plume being ingested into an extratropical cyclone in its mature or “seclusion” state …
Don’t need any equations to do a trajectory analysis on this one…
Can someone compare or point to a comparison of this eruption to, say, the top ten that we know about?
I’m not flying in a jet plane through that mess. That is one dirty cloud.
Is that the snow cover on Iceland & Greenland I see in the image?
The ash looks rather sickly greenish-brown. I have read bits here & there that it is loaded with flourine.
Superb resolution. You don’t see that on the MSM.
The Met Office really does seem to be coming in for some criticism over its models and the flight restrictions that have been in place. I got to thinking last night about the The Harmattan West African trade wind. It blows south from Sahara into the Gulf of Guinea.
I used to regularly fly from the UK down to Nigeria and can say that the wind really picks up an incredible amount of sand from the Sahara and dumps it as it blows down the west of Africa. Some days it reduces ground visibility to a matter of yards and I once had a pair of sunglasses shot blasted on a 2 hour speedboat ride to an oil installation in the delta area.
It just makes me wonder how aircraft can fly though the Harmatan dust but have trouble with the volcanic stuff. Obviously height may come into it but the aircraft we were in made daily flights into 2 months of wind driven Sahara without incident apart from a few diversions due to visibility and the lack of decent radar approach equipment.
Have you seen the pictures from a volcano (in the Pacific) that has just broken the surface and continuing to spew ash?
http://www.barking-moonbat.com/index.php/weblog/more_bothersome_volcanoes/
I’ve given up trying to pronounce Eyjafjallajoekull, so now it’s jus:
Aye Jaf Jalla JOE KULL !
That is one cool photo!
Look at how the cumulus clouds huge the northern boundary and right down the middle of the plume. And those pristine harmonic waves, nearly perfect!
The “shadow” cloud above it looks interesting. Wonder if it is related to the ash or if both are just being manipulated by the cyclone in the same way.
BTW: Thanks for link to Aqua/MODIS image Ryan.
Pat, this would be low silica magma.
Webcam…
http://eldgos.mila.is/
Less mess this morning, modest plume and Lenticularis clouds
http://i44.tinypic.com/jpx3sl.jpg
You can see that as you move away from the volcano, the ratio of ash to water increases. The sections of the plume which are semi-transparent are probably almost 100% ash.
old salt, this is a little eruption so far made big by Euro Ninnies!
Great photos. On the bright side, the Icelanders seem to be lucking out on the wind direction so far.
I would say right now, not even in the top 50. That comes from a sedimentologist so it may no be worth much.
Close up from the crater:
http://http.ruv.straumar.is/static.ruv.is/vefur/Fyrstu_eldmyndirnar.wmv
stevengoddard (22:06:36) :
“I’m not flying in a jet plane through that mess. That is one dirty cloud”.
Watch the white fluffy clouds above the dust, it’s relative low.
I don’t think it will cause much of a problem when it is sucked into the depression and mixes with rain.
As mentioned earlier the UK Met Office is coming in for stick for its dust extent forecasting form the EU, telling comment was, we should be concentrating on actual readings not on computer model predictions which have been shown to be faulty. Translate that to AGW and its sad these same EU officals don’t think the same way, maybe this panic will open their eyes.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/19/ash-lava-volcano-eruption-phase
I will be watching the arctic ice with interest. So much extra cloud cover should keep the waters cooler than otherwise they would be. Maybe 2010 will be a record summer ice area year if this keeps up for a month.
Just when you thought that scientists were too dumb to live:
UK water use ‘worsening global crisis’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8628832.stm
Earlier I posted a piece that UK scientists suggested that only the UK suffers from solar quiescence, ie, winter cooling, because of lack of solar activity . How special. Now the Brits have the novel thought that water in Africa disappears because of British agriculture. Can’t these people just kill themselves and spare us the torture? After all, Muslims say they want the place for themselves.
I think that the worst thing about the Icelandic volcanoes is that they can spew out hydrofluoric acid. That is seriously nasty sh*t.
Pete H (22:15:10)
It’s the nature of the ash Pete, sand granules tend to be smooth edged or rounded and flow easily. Volcanic ash is fragmented and jagged and tends to stick to surfaces more easily. I believe that the melting point is substantially lower than sand as well so in a hot engine the ash tends to build up on surfaces.
You can see the volcanic activity covered by USGS in the world. It’s sometimes interesting.
http://www.volcano.si.edu/reports/usgs/