Global and Regional IUCN Red List Assessments: 2

In this contribution the conservation status assessment of six plant species according to IUCN categories and criteria are presented. It includes the assessment at global level of Charybdis glaucophylla Bacch., Brullo, D’Emerico, Pontec. & Salmeri, Euphorbia nicaeensis All. subsp. japygica (Ten.) Arcang., Hieracium australe Fr. subsp. australe, Limonium multiforme Pignatti, Onosma helvetica Boiss. em. Teppner subsp. lucana (Lacaita) Peruzzi, Aquaro & Cesca and the assessment at national level (Italy) of Lathyrus laxiflorus (Desf.) Kuntze subsp. laxiflorus

MT. ETNA TROPOSPHERIC ASH RETRIEVAL AND SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS USING MODERATE RESOLUTION IMAGING SPECTRORADIOMETER MEASUREMENTS

A retrieval of tropospheric volcanic ash from Mt Etna has been carried out, usingmeasurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). TheNASA-MODIS satellite instrument acquires images in the 0.4 to 14 μm spectral range with aspatial resolution of 1 km at nadir. The eruption which occurred on 24 November 2006 is consideredas a test case in this work. In order to derive the ash plume optical thickness, the particleeffective radius and the total mass, the Brightness Temperature Difference procedure has beenapplied to MODIS channels 31 (centered at 11 μm) and 32 (centered at 12 μm). Channel 5(centered at 1.24 μm) has been used to refine the cloud discrimination, exploiting the distinctreflectivity of meteorological and volcanic clouds in the near infrared spectral range. The detectionof volcanic ash pixels has been significantly improved by applying an atmospheric watervapor correction to MODIS data. This procedure doubles the number of pixels identified ascontaining volcanic ash compared to the original method. The retrieved mean ash optical thicknessat 0.55 μm, mean particle effective radius and the total ash mass in the plume are 0.4, 3.5μm and 3620 tons, respectively. A detailed sensitivity analysis has been carried out to investigateerrors in the retrieval caused by the uncertainty in various parameters: surface temperatureand emissivity, plume geometry (altitude and thickness), ash type and atmospheric water vapor.Results show that the largest contributions to retrieval errors are from uncertainty in surfaceparameters, aerosol type and atmospheric water vapor. The total tropospheric volcanic ash retrievalerrors are estimated to be 30%, 30% and 40% for mean AOT, mean effective radius andtotal mass retrieval, respectively

ASI-SRV optical sensor data processing modules

The Project called Sistema Rischio Vulcanico (SRV) is funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the frame of the National Space Plan 2003-2005 under the Earth Observations section for natural risks management. The SRV Project is coordinated by the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) which is responsible at national level for the volcanic monitoring. The main goal of the SRV project is to define, develop and demonstrate tools and products, based on the EO data, to support the risk management decision procedures. This is achieved through the development of data processing modules dedicated to the generation of specific products and to the dissemination of the information to the end-users in a form suitable for decision making. An important step of the project development regards the technical and scientific feasibility of the provided products