The eruption of a volcano in Iceland has the skies over the UK and Europe filled with ash. Like what happened on 9/11 in the USA, planes are landing everywhere and staying out of the skies. Volcanic ash eats scours jet turbines, making in flight failure almost a certainty.
There’s a cool website called flightradar24.com which is operated by a volunteer network of aviation enthusiasts with special receivers. They describe it as:
Flightradar24.com shows live airplane traffic from different parts around the world. The technique to receive flight information from airplanes is called ADS-B. That means the Flightradar24.com can only show information about airplanes equipped with ADS-B transponders. Today about 60% of the passenger airplanes and only a small amount of military and private airplanes have an ADS-B transponder. Flightradar24.com has a network of about 100 ADS-B receivers around the world that receives the information from airplanes with ADS-B and sends this information to a server, and then displays this information on a map on Flightradar24.com. Only airplanes within the coverage area of the 100 receivers are visible.
Watch as airplanes disappear from the skies over the UK and Europe. Here’s about 8AM PST. Blue X’s are receivers.
Two hours later:
…and at the time of this posting, 2PM PST, with a wider view:
And the ash continues to spread:
Discover more from Watts Up With That?
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
BBC Radio 2, Breakfast Show with the wonderful Chris Evans. A tad after 7:00am he said something along the lines of Mother Nature having sneeze (or something like it), & the UK air industry grinds to a halt! He followed up quickly with “what on Earth would happen if she had a coughing fit!”. Rather a very subtle way of suggesting that Mother Nature dictates what happens here on old Gaia, not mankind. When will people learn that we do not, & cannot control our environment/atmosphere/climate, only prepare for adaptation & use all our technological advantages over previous incarnations to predict what could happen (without the aid of computer models that is)! Anyway look on the bright side of life, it takes the drudge & boredem off this sloathful election looming ahead. Live long & prosper, hide the decline, whiten that wash, AtB in the PDR of EU. HAGWE everyone.
kwik (22:47:15) :
So, will we see a CO2 spike on Maona Loa?
Hardly, as all volcanoes together (and following venting) emit far less CO2 than humans do. Even the Pinatubo eruption didn’t cause a spike, even less increase, as the subsequent cooling caused more extra absorption in the oceans (and more diffuse light increased the production of vegetation).
West Houston (19:17:24) :
Quoting: Dave Wendt (15:31:37) :
On another subject:
Volcanoes also put out enormous amounts of CO2. And the “go-to” CO2 monitor is on an island with an active volcano and another “very active” volcano. I’ve always been puzzled about that.
Mauna Loa indeed is on an active volcano, but that only influences the local measurements (+4 ppmv) when there is occasionally downslope wind. The opposite also happens with upslope wind from the valley, slightly depleted (-4 ppmv) by vegetation. These values are “flagged” and not used for daily to yearly averages.
Other places where “background” CO2 is measured (like the South Pole: no volcano, no vegetation) show the same averages and the same trends within a few ppmv.
See: http://www.ferdinand-engelbeen.be/klimaat/klim_img/co2_trends.gif
far more places measure CO2 (but not all are suitable “background” places):
http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/iadv/
The Sydney Morning Herald has a worthwhile write-up:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/science/volcanoes-be-afraid-be-very-afraid–the-supervolcano-is-coming-20100416-sj01.html?autostart=1
How long before we see past cooling attributed to this eruption?
Hmmm.,
Looks like it’s crashed :-
“radar Database hittades inte.webuser”
which I think is Swedish for not found
Warming advocates have a choice to make, they can say that the volcano was caused by the warmest March on record, or blame it on the colder weather later on, i don’t envy their decision
Cliff Mass posting on Mount Eyjafjallokull and general volcano effects on weather and climate.
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2010/04/icelands-volcanic-eruption-what-will-be.html
Minor quibble – in the text the blue X’s/crosses are identified as receivers, they are actually airports.
Names like ‘Heathrow’, ‘Luton’, ‘Gatwick’, ‘Stansted’ etc would suggest that as the likely answer.
Speed (17:34:40) :
It is not the abrasive qualities of volcanic ash that causes turbojet engines to fail, the ash melts as it passes through the burners and then condenses as it cools on its way through the turbine. From the Wikipedia account of the British Airways flight 9 …
It’s the abrasion.
Whoever wrote that Wiki article doesn’t have the slightest clue how a jet engine works. The compressor turbines are *forward* of the combustion chamber, which is the *final* stage of the engine — everything aft of it is open — and the internal airflow is designed to keep the walls of the combustion chamber *cooler* than the center.
BA9’s engines flamed out because they ingested so much ash so fast, the ash clogged the intakes — no airflow means no combustion. The pilots managed a relight because they glided down into denser air, which cleaned enough of the ash to allow the airflow through the compressor section and into the combustion chamber.
I think all this activity plus solar is actually due to the very current record breaking geomagnetic status of the sun. I think Anthony has done two or three post on that (hope I’m right… it was geomagnetic?). It certainly is not coincidental
This is a nice site. You can see the IR sat images for the last hour over northwest europe.
http://www.sat24.com/Eyjafjallajokull-volcano.aspx
How well do solar panels work when covered in ash?
Will Hexaflouric (?) acid eat through the panels and stop them working?
Boy, this could be fun…….
Temps in the US warmed after 9/11 when all the aircraft stopped flying because the jet exhaust induced cirrus cloud cover that reflected some of the incoming solar radiation disappeared resulting in warmer temps.
Now all this volcanic ash from Iceland, most of it surely will end up on the ice, in the Arctic.
Being a natural event I’m sure there are no negative effects but a little bit of soot, because it is from fossil fuel burning, i.e. man made and thus evil, will probably cause the planet not to warm.
Now lets be clear, natural ash no warming, fossil fuel soot (far less of it I’d suggest) runaway warming.
Similarly, CO2 from volcanoes, natural, no warming, CO2 from fossil fuels, man made, evil and hence runaway warming.
Proof? after volcanic events the planet usually cools. Ergo natural is good, man made is bad. Oh, and don’t forget, Cold is good and warm is bad…. unless warm is due to natural causes and hence automatically evil.
This may seem silly but the reality is that many of these activists are anti-society, or at least, anti-western society. Good and Bad are determined by the cause. If it is anthropological then the outcome must be bad.
One theory put forward by a cynic is: AGW melts glaciers. melt water runs off. Weight on mantle reduces causing stress and causing volcanic activity. Volcano then melts glacier and cycle repeats.
This is the suggestion that the corollary to the above is that any event which is bad must be anthropogenic in origin.
We can thus state the first two laws of Climate Change:
The First Law:
All events with an anthropogenic root cause are bad.
The Second Law:
Any event which is bad has an anthropogenic cause.
The two corollaries are:
Corollary 1:
All natural occurring Events are Good.
Corrolary 2:
Any event which is good is due to natural causes.
Thus either the Volcano is a result of man’s activities and is bad for us or it is a result of natural events and is good for us.
The problem now is to determine which the case. We can either look at causes (difficult in many such events) or we can look at results. In this case if we decide the results are bad then we can deduce it is anthropogenic in origin. If, however, the weight of evidence suggests it is natural in origin then it must be good for us. This sort of dilemma presumably has a simple resolution but we the public are not given the reasoning which allows ecowarriors to make this sort of determination so I guess we will have to wait and see.
Bill, I don’t know if it is the abrasion or clogging (I guess both), but your description of a turbofan is wrong. Cool air enter the compressor stage, go to the combustion chamber, is heated, and exit though the exhaust turbine to produce mechanical work. Then it exit and provide a small (on modern engines) part of the thrust.
The mechanical power is used to drive the compressor turbine (where do you think it get its power to compress air in the first place? 😉 ) and the fan, which provide the main part of the thrust (yes, modern engines are closer to turboprop than jets, it’s just that the blades are hidden in a nacelle and more numerous)…
Clogging within or after the combustion chamber wil defintely prevent a turbofan from doing its job…
Or maybe you think of afterburner type of engine, which produce a nice red-hot flame when at full power? Those types of engines are used on military jets, and only for take off, high speed or high-power maneuvre, not cruising. Only commercial aircraft that used it is the concorde (or russian copy), no current airliner use this as it is horribly fuel-inneficient… 😉
Re Dark Ages:
Does the legend of King Arthur fit into this time frame? Wasn’t there something in that about a dark sky and fire falling to the earth.
Aren’t they called the Dark Ages because there were so many knights? Sorry, couldn’t resist it.
kwik (22:47:15) :
So, will we see a CO2 spike on Maona Loa?
————————————–
I wondered that. Wonder if Mt. St. Helens made a spike. Wonder if Maona Loa does indeed show these things.
Interesting question.
gkai (05:44:30) :
Bill, I don’t know if it is the abrasion or clogging (I guess both), but your description of a turbofan is wrong. Cool air enter the compressor stage, go to the combustion chamber, is heated, and exit though the exhaust turbine to produce mechanical work. Then it exit and provide a small (on modern engines) part of the thrust.
I was describing a *jet* engine, not a turbofan. The B-747 series uses a high-bypass turbofan, so you got that and I missed it — a score from the three point line! — but coating the exhaust turbine won’t shut the engine down, and actually clogging it to the point where the exhaust flow is impeded will result in catastrophic compressor stalls and extensive internal damage to the combustion section. Volcanic ash *will* melt in the combustion section of a large jet engine, but the ICAO concern with that is that the stuff will coat the *fuel* nozzles — since the BA9 crew was able to get a relight, the engines didn’t ingest enough for that to occur.
I still vote for caking in the intakes.
gkai (05:50:10) :
no current airliner use this as it is horribly fuel-inneficient… 😉
And it would disturb the passengers if they saw thirty-foot flames shooting out of the engines on takeoff, too…
Bill Tuttle (03:55:41)
You said, “Whoever wrote that Wiki article doesn’t have the slightest clue how a jet engine works.”
Perhaps you will be convinced by this from Thomas J. Casadevall, Project Chief, Volcanic Hazards and Aviation Safety, U.S. Geological Survey.
“Two processes deteriorate engine performance: erosion of moving engine parts, such as compressor and turbine blades, and accumulation of partially melted ash in hot zones of the engine … Ash deposits in the hot sections of the engines, including fuel nozzles, the combustor and turbine reduce the efficiency of fuel mixing and restrict air passing through the engine. This causes surging, flame out and immediate loss of engine thrust. This loss is the principal cause of engine failure.”
http://www.skybrary.aero/bookshelf/books/358.pdf
You said, “The compressor turbines are *forward* of the combustion chamber, which is the *final* stage of the engine … ”
In the aviation industry, “turbine” (or “power turbine”) refers to the wheels and blades that are downstream (generally “aft”) of the burner and extract power from the hot gasses to drive the compressor, fan and accessories. “Compressor” refers to the wheels and blades that compress (imagine that) the incoming air upstream (generally “forward”) of the burner. The above linked article has a nice cutaway drawing showing this.
there was a rapid cooling off here this afternoon to the east of germany. word last night was the ash was around 12,000 ft high. there was a dramatic darkening and then a chill set in here, no sign of ash though. volcanic ash is usually acidic, so you need to be careful wiping it off your auto or you’ll take your paint off with it. wipe with dry clothe, then use moisture infused with soda lightly to touch up your work. it definitely poses a health risk if you breathe it in. stay inside, shut the windows, close the vents. only walk around in it with face masks that filter very fine dust.
boy on a bike:
absolutely yes, not only will it eat through glass, it will love the silicon-silver combination of photovoltaic cells and should eat nice little holes right through them 🙂
here’s the poorman’s solution: throw some clear plastic over them.
if you get dust on your solar panels, wipe them with a dry cloth, then add some baking soda to water and wipe it down with a moist not wet cloth.
it’s not the end of the world, honest.
Re Vigilantsmith and the Dark Ages: OK this is a bit OT but is relevant to climate. The Dark Ages name remains today, not because of Roman snobbery but the woeful lack of written record. Sure, tremendous advances in technology were made in this period from metalwork to the design of the plough. Many of these technologies originated in East Asia and spread slowly to Europe. The important question is why Europe seized on them so successfully whilst East Asia failed to exploit them. Some technology was lost in the West – for example, the ability to build with concrete which the Romans had done. But nonetheless, the Dark Ages saw a transformation in technology and agricultural practice.
It is accepted that the ‘Justinian’ plague did immense damage to Europe and North Africa. It was also observed at this time that days had darkened and the Sun was not as strong. There is no good evidence of a volcanic eruption at this time which would produce this effect but it has been suggested that the Earth passed through the tail end of a comet break up. If this is true, it would have had a cooling effect on the Earth. In turn, this would have affected the wildlife of East Africa driving plague carrying rats towards the coast where they hitched a lift into the ‘civilised’ world spreading the plague with their parasites. (I have simplified this process. For the full argument, read ‘Exodus to Arthur’ by Mike Baillie.) It would seem that whilst be might be aware of the huge influence of volcanic activity can have on climate (and therefore, human history) we would be foolish to ignore the effects of our extraterrestial neighbours.
Just put this in to worry you whilst you are wondering about the next caldera blow out that threatens our very existence. And these guys worry about CO2 – I don’t believe it!
A good piece on “Volcanic Gases and Their Effects” including references.
http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/index.php