The ash dispersion over Europe during the Eyjafjallajökull eruption – Comparison of CMAQ simulations to remote sensing and air-borne in-situ observations

The dispersion of volcanic ash over Europe after the outbreak of the Eyjafjallajokull on Iceland on 14 April 2010 has been simulated with a conventional three-dimensional Eulerian chemistry transport model system, the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Four different emission scenarios representing the lower and upper bounds of the emission height and intensity were considered. The atmospheric ash concentrations turned out to be highly variable in time and space. The model results were compared to three different kinds of observations: Aeronet aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements, Earlinet aerosol extinction profiles and in-situ observations of the ash concentration by means of optical particle counters aboard the DLR Falcon aircraft. The model was able to reproduce observed AOD values and atmospheric ash concentrations. Best agreement was achieved for lower emission heights and a fraction of 2% transportable ash in the total volcanic emissions. The complex vertical structure of the volcanic ash layers in the free troposphere could not be simulated. Compared to the observations, the model tends to show vertically more extended, homogeneous aerosol layers. This is caused by a poor vertical resolution of the model at higher altitudes and a lack of information about the vertical distribution of the volcanic emissions. Only a combination of quickly available observations of the volcanic ash cloud and atmospheric transport models can give a comprehensive picture of ash concentrations in the atmosphere.

[1]  J. Bösenberg,et al.  EARLINET: A European Aerosol Research Lidar Network to Establish an Aerosol Climatology , 2003 .

[2]  Roland Doerffer,et al.  Aerosol climatology from ground-based measurements for the southern North Sea , 2007 .

[3]  U. Schumann,et al.  Airborne observations of the Eyjafjalla volcano ash cloud over Europe during air space closure in April and May 2010 , 2010 .

[4]  Josef Gasteiger,et al.  Volcanic ash from Iceland over Munich: mass concentration retrieved from ground-based remote sensing measurements , 2010 .

[5]  Larry G. Mastin,et al.  A multidisciplinary effort to assign realistic source parameters to models of volcanic ash-cloud transport and dispersion during eruptions , 2009 .

[6]  L. Mona,et al.  One year of CNR-IMAA multi-wavelength Raman lidar measurements in coincidence with CALIPSO overpasses: Level 1 products comparison , 2009 .

[7]  Benjamin M. Herman,et al.  Determination of aerosol height distributions by lidar , 1972 .

[8]  M. Quante,et al.  Adapting CMAQ to investigate air pollution in North Sea coastal regions , 2008, Environ. Model. Softw..

[9]  V. Matthias,et al.  Wet deposition of poly- and perfluorinated compounds in Northern Germany. , 2010, Environmental pollution.

[10]  T. Eck,et al.  An emerging ground-based aerosol climatology: Aerosol optical depth from AERONET , 2001 .

[11]  T. Eck,et al.  Wavelength dependence of the optical depth of biomass burning, urban, and desert dust aerosols , 1999 .

[12]  M. Quante,et al.  Impact of Emission Reductions between 1980 and 2020 on Atmospheric Benzo[a]pyrene Concentrations over Europe , 2012, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution.

[13]  Nicola Spinelli,et al.  The vertical distribution of aerosol over Europe - synthesis of one year of EARLINET aerosol lidar measurements and aerosol transport modeling with LMDzT-INCA , 2005 .

[14]  Albert Ansmann,et al.  Multiyear aerosol observations with dual‐wavelength Raman lidar in the framework of EARLINET , 2004 .

[15]  V. Freudenthaler,et al.  Long-range transport of Saharan dust to northern Europe : The 11-16 October 2001 outbreak observed with EARLINET , 2003 .

[16]  M. Quante,et al.  Vertical emission profiles for Europe based on plume rise calculations. , 2011, Environmental pollution.

[17]  Markus Quante,et al.  An Approach to Temporally Disaggregate Benzo(a)pyrene Emissions and Their Application to a 3D Eulerian Atmospheric Chemistry Transport Model , 2011 .

[18]  Markus Quante,et al.  Water in the Earth's atmosphere , 2006 .

[19]  C. N. Hewitt,et al.  A global model of natural volatile organic compound emissions , 1995 .

[20]  Volker Matthias,et al.  The aerosol distribution in Europe derived with the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model: comparison to near surface in situ and sunphotometer measurements , 2008 .

[21]  M. Haeffelin,et al.  Assessing in near real time the impact of the April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull ash plume on air quality , 2011 .

[22]  F. Bonnardot,et al.  Comparison of VAAC atmospheric dispersion models using the 1 November 2004 Grimsvötn eruption , 2007 .

[23]  V. Freudenthaler,et al.  The 16 April 2010 major volcanic ash plume over central Europe: EARLINET lidar and AERONET photometer observations at Leipzig and Munich, Germany , 2010 .

[24]  Jens Bösenberg,et al.  Aerosol climatology for the planetary boundary layer derived from regular lidar measurements , 2002 .

[25]  W. Malm,et al.  Spatial and seasonal trends in particle concentration and optical extinction in the United States , 1994 .

[26]  A. Bais,et al.  Study of the effect of different type of aerosols on UV-B radiation from measurements during EARLINET , 2003 .

[27]  Albert Ansmann,et al.  Air mass modification over Europe: EARLINET aerosol observations from Wales to Belarus , 2004 .

[28]  A. Ansmann,et al.  Combined raman elastic-backscatter LIDAR for vertical profiling of moisture, aerosol extinction, backscatter, and LIDAR ratio , 1992 .

[29]  L. Mona,et al.  Systematic lidar observations of Saharan dust over Europe in the frame of EARLINET (2000-2002) , 2008 .

[30]  Volker Matthias,et al.  Annual time series of air concentrations of polyfluorinated compounds. , 2009, Environmental science & technology.

[31]  M. Quante,et al.  The contribution of ship emissions to air pollution in the North Sea regions. , 2010, Environmental pollution.

[32]  M. Quante,et al.  CMAQ, simulations of the benzo(a)pyrene distribution over Europe for 2000 and 2001 , 2009 .

[33]  M. Quante,et al.  Determination of the optimum MM5 configuration for long term CMAQ simulations of aerosol bound pollutants in Europe , 2009 .

[34]  Markus Quante,et al.  SMOKE for Europe - adaptation, modification and evaluation of a comprehensive emission model for Europe , 2010 .

[35]  A. Stohl,et al.  Tropospheric aerosol layers after a cold front passage in January 2000 as observed at several stations of the German Lidar Network , 2002 .

[36]  A. Smirnov,et al.  AERONET-a federated instrument network and data archive for aerosol Characterization , 1998 .

[37]  A. Ansmann,et al.  Aerosol lidar intercomparison in the framework of the EARLINET project. 3. Raman lidar algorithm for aerosol extinction, backscatter, and lidar ratio. , 2004, Applied optics.

[38]  Kerstin Stebel,et al.  Determination of time- and height-resolved volcanic ash emissions and their use for quantitative ash dispersion modeling: the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption , 2011 .

[39]  Arnau Folch,et al.  Volcanic ash over Europe during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull on Iceland, April–May 2010 , 2012 .

[40]  R. Reynolds,et al.  The NCEP/NCAR 40-Year Reanalysis Project , 1996, Renewable Energy.

[41]  L. Mona,et al.  Multi-wavelength Raman lidar observations of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic cloud over Potenza, southern Italy , 2011 .

[42]  S. Bony,et al.  SIRTA, a ground-based atmospheric observatory for cloud and aerosol research , 2005 .

[43]  A. Hense,et al.  The Regional Climate Model COSMO-CLM (CCLM) , 2008 .

[44]  Alexandros Papayannis,et al.  Systematic lidar observations of Saharan dust layers over Athens, Greece in the frame of EARLINET project (2004–2006) , 2009 .

[45]  Stefan Emeis,et al.  Measurement and simulation of the 16/17 April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash layer dispersion in the northern Alpine region , 2011 .

[46]  M. C. Dodge,et al.  A photochemical kinetics mechanism for urban and regional scale computer modeling , 1989 .