The MODIS/AQUA rapidfire website finally had a pass overhead online early this AM of the Ethiopian/Eritrean area volcanic eruption of Nabro, and I have them below. The plume stretches well over 1000 miles now. In the photo below, the Red Sea is prominent north of the volcano.
The zoomed image below the “read more” line is quite dramatic.
I have acquired and cropped the 250 meter resolution scan (thanks to all the reader tips), and the imagery is quite dramatic, and shows the eruption continues unabated:
More details on the eruption here
I’m sure we’ll have a sulfur dioxide estimate, and perhaps an ESA image of it in the next few days. It appears that we are in quite an active period of vulcanism, with several eruptions worldwide in recent weeks.
UPDATE: Reader FergalR gives us this near real-time satellite image of the SO2 plume:
Looks like a Pinatubo redux. Equatorial SO2 has a pronounced effect. The length and volume of the eruption remains to be determined.
Source: http://www.temis.nl/aviation/so2/omi/2011/06/13/omi_vcd20110613_000_srl_lr.png
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Big plume of sulphur dioxide:
http://www.temis.nl/aviation/so2/omi/2011/06/13/omi_vcd20110613_000_srl_lr.png
Let the cooling begin
This is a ROUGH estimate of the eruption size for Nabro and Puyehue-Cordon Caulle derived from VAAC reports and activity reports. The formula is from “A multidisciplinary effort to assign realistic source parameters to models of volcanic ash-cloud transport and dispersion during eruptions” Mastin et al (2009) and had an accuracy of a factor of four, either high or low. This is represented by the shaded area tracking with each curve.
http://i55.tinypic.com/2ev6q0x.png
We live in interesting times….
Over at the Smithsonian, their Nabro volcanism page shows “Unknown” as the last known eruption. Before this one, I presume.
http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=0201-101
OK S.
Nearly all this and lasts years tectonic activity is probably due to historic change in solar conditions.
Gaia is angry! Better throw in some virgin climate researchers.
Seriously, a quantitative comparison to the Pinatubo eruptions would be fascinating — and seeing a prediction based on them come true would be oh-so-sweet. Let’s beat the GCMs!
Did Nabro purchase the appropriate carbon offsets to be able to release CO2 into the atmosphere? U.N. — get on that right now!
There has to be relationship to the activity of sun. We just don’t know how it works.
Pierre Gosselin posted this about activity at the Ethiopian Erta Ale volcano in January (50 km to the West of the Nabro), referring to a Spiegel article. It mentions the breaking apart of the African continent in that area. We will see more of this.
http://notrickszone.com/2011/01/23/red-sea-about-to-flood-into-africa-as-continent-shatters/
It looks like the ash is above the cloud deck. Any estimates as to the height of the erruption?
VAAC alerts indicate the hazard goes up to FL450. 45,000 feet, (13.7 km)
I hope this is low sulfur SO2.
/sarc
While volcanoes are always erupting around the world, there are currently a couple of big ones going on. The Chile one has dumped a lot of SO2 and the Iceland one put material up to 50,000 ft.
The Sun is sitting quiet and the AMO and PDO appear to be drifting negative.
Then there is the record amount of snow that is still left in the mountains of the west, in many places where there should not be snow there is 10ft+ that is showing no signs of melting….
Then some “scientist” comes out and says global warming is causing the lack of snow melting… They are so focused on the CO2 bogey man that they are blind to everything else…
http://theinconvenientskeptic.com/2011/06/deepest-snowpack-in-june-is-caused-by-global-warming/
Anthony, the eruption is actually just over the border in Eritrea, not Ethiopia.
Someone on another blog mentioned something that occurred to me:
Will this eruption have an impact on the Atlantic hurricane season seeing as that ash will likely be carried by the trade winds over the Atlantic at some point.
Was this in the models?
Guess who is/was in Ethiopia.U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton .
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton to Visit Various Sites in Ethiopia
http://nazret.com/blog/index.php/2011/06/13/ethiopia-secretary-of-state-hilary-clinton-to-visit-menelik-ii-secondary-school-and-fistula-hospital
No wonder the Earth is doing this
Heh, Hillary is leaving Ethiopia early due to the ash cloud. Obama had to leave Ireland early due to the most recent Icelandic one.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13752433
What is it with these people and volcanoes?
Volcanoes like this provide an opportunity to test climate sensitivity. Climate models assume a very high sensitivity to radiative forcing and typically predict considerable cooling from a large volcanic eruption. However the measured cooling subsequent to a volcanic eruption is typically much smaller, suggesting a lower sensitivity. It will be very interesting to see whether this will happen again.
ShrNfr says:
June 13, 2011 at 10:43 am
“Was this in the models?”
Effects of Volcanoes . . . are included in my “model” . . . .
Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/
http://www.meteo.fr/vaac/archives/DUBBI/DUBBI.201103.201106131200.png
FoS Luncheon 2011 Dr. Ian Plimer, Part 3
Terrestrial Basalt Supervolcanoes
“one volcano can ruin your day” Ian Plimer
You might want to wave the ‘virgin’ requirment. There probably aren’t any doing climate research.
The MSM is still quiet as a mouse on this.
What gives?