20 April 2010
The Ash Is Thinning!
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Image from NASA Modis Satellite 2 pm UK time. The thinning ash cloud is being absorbeb by a low pressure SE of Iceland.
Great news for air travelers this evening. The eruption in Iceland is now putting out much less ash and the cloud is much lower. The low level ash is not headed toward the UK as the image above shows.
The snow-cap that covered the volcano has melted away. This has reduced the steam/ash combination that was climbing to over 3,000 meters.
Even more good news tonight. The upper level and lower level winds will push any new ash cloud to the North of the UK and France. It looks likely that airports will be opening across Western Europe tomorrow and this is now being confirmed by the BBC.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
In Australia —– says Iceland’s volcanic carbon emissions are good news for plant growth and the current eruptions give an indication of the potential for carbon emissions from future volcanos.
“We are living in a period of volcanic quiescence, as we haven’t had a dirty big eruption since 1912; and this is a small eruption but it is giving us the window into what a very big eruption would be like.”
FYI,
Your blog post is 100% incorrect. Humans produce about 150 times more CO2 than volcanoes. This is a very old myth that has been debunked many times. Plimer has been an international joke in the science world for awhile now. One of Australia’s top scientists wrote a book review of his book. http://wildwildweather.com/forecastblog/2009/05/this-would-be-the-funniest-book-review-ive-read-if-it-were-not-so-sad/