Meteorological controls on local and regional volcanic ash dispersal

Poulidis, Alexandros P., Phillips, Jeremy C., Renfrew, Ian A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9379-8215, Barclay, Jenni ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6122-197X, Hogg, Andrew, Jenkins, Susanna F., Robertson, Richard and Pyle, David M. (2018) Meteorological controls on local and regional volcanic ash dispersal. Scientific Reports, 8. ISSN 2045-2322

[thumbnail of Published manuscript]
Preview
PDF (Published manuscript) - Published Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.

Download (2MB) | Preview

Abstract

Volcanic ash has the capacity to impact human health, livestock, crops and infrastructure, including international air traffic. For recent major eruptions, information on the volcanic ash plume has been combined with relatively coarse-resolution meteorological model output to provide simulations of regional ash dispersal, with reasonable success on the scale of hundreds of kilometres. However, to predict and mitigate these impacts locally, significant improvements in modelling capability are required. Here, we present results from a dynamic meteorological-ash-dispersion model configured with sufficient resolution to represent local topographic and convectively-forced flows. We focus on an archetypal volcanic setting, Soufrière, St Vincent, and use the exceptional historical records of the 1902 and 1979 eruptions to challenge our simulations. We find that the evolution and characteristics of ash deposition on St Vincent and nearby islands can be accurately simulated when the wind shear associated with the trade wind inversion and topographically-forced flows are represented. The wind shear plays a primary role and topographic flows a secondary role on ash distribution on local to regional scales. We propose a new explanation for the downwind ash deposition maxima, commonly observed in volcanic eruptions, as resulting from the detailed forcing of mesoscale meteorology on the ash plume.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Geosciences
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 25 May 2018 09:30
Last Modified: 22 Oct 2022 03:49
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/67184
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-24651-1

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item