Airborne observations of the Eyjafjalla volcano ash cloud over Europe during air space closure in April and May 2010

© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 LicenseAirborne lidar and in-situ measurements of aerosols and trace gases were performed in volcanic ash plumes over Europe between Southern Germany and Iceland with the Falcon aircraft during the eruption period of the Eyjafjalla1 volcano between 19 April and 18 May 2010. Flight planning and measurement analyses were supported by a refined Meteosat ash product and trajectory model analysis. The volcanic ash plume was observed with lidar directly over the volcano and up to a distance of 2700 km downwind, and up to 120 h plume ages. Aged ash layers were between a few 100 m to 3 km deep, occurred between 1 and 7 km altitude, and were typically 100 to 300 km wide. Particles collected by impactors had diameters up to 20 μm diameter, with size and age dependent composition. Ash mass concentrations were derived from optical particle spectrometers for a particle density of 2.6 g cm-3 and various values of the refractive index (RI, real part: 1.59; 3 values for the imaginary part: 0, 0.004 and 0.008). The mass concentrations, effective diameters and related optical properties were compared with ground-based lidar observations. Theoretical considerations of particle sedimentation constrain the particle diameters to those obtained for the lower RI values. The ash mass concentration results have an uncertainty of a factor of two. The maximum ash mass concentration encountered during the 17 flights with 34 ash plume penetrations was below 1 mg m-3. The Falcon flew in ash clouds up to about 0.8 mg m-3 for a few minutes and in an ash cloud with approximately 0.2 mg -3 mean-concentration for about one hour without engine damage. The ash plumes were rather dry and correlated with considerable CO and SO2 increases and O3 decreases. To first order, ash concentration and SO2 mixing ratio in the plumes decreased by a factor of two within less than a day. In fresh plumes, the SO2 and CO concentration increases were correlated with the ash mass concentration. The ash plumes were often visible slantwise as faint dark layers, even for concentrations below 0.1 mg m-3. The large abundance of volatile Aitken mode particles suggests previous nucleation of sulfuric acid droplets. The effective diameters range between 0.2 and 3 μm with considerable surface and volume contributions from the Aitken and coarse mode aerosol, respectively. The distal ash mass flux on 2 May was of the order of 500 (240-1600) kgs -1. The volcano induced about 10 (2.5-50) Tg of distal ash mass and about 3 (0.6-23) Tg of SO2 during the whole eruption period. The results of the Falcon flights were used to support the responsible agencies in their decisions concerning air traffic in the presence of volcanic ash.Peer reviewe

A Possible Explanation of Counter-Gradient Fluxes in Homogeneous Turbulence

This study addresses the phenomenon of persistent countergradient (PCG) fluxes of momentum and heat (density) as observed in homogeneous turbulence forced by shear and stratification. Countergradient fluxes may occur at large scales when stratification is strong. However, they always occur at small scales, independently of stratification. A conceptional model is introduced to explain PCG fluxes at small scales as the result of the collision of large-scale fluid parcels. The large parcels collide under the driving force of inclined vortex structures (in a shear-dominated flow) or of buoyancy (in a strongly stratified shear flow). This "collision model" also explains the PCG heat flux in an unsheared stratified flow with zero average momentum flux. It is found that the energy of the small-scale PCG motions is provided (i) by quick transport of kinetic energy from the scales of production to relatively slowly dissipating scales if the flow is shear-driven and (ii) by conversion of available potential energy to kinetic energy at small scales when the flow is stratified. The collision mechanism is an inherent property of the turbulence dynamics. Therefore, the PCG fluxes at small scales reflect a universal character of homogeneous turbulence, and are found over a large range of Reynolds numbers. The Prandtl (or Schmidt) number influences the rate of dissipation of temperature (or density) variance but not the dissipation rate of the velocity variance. In stratified flows, therefore, the number directly affects the strength of the PCG heat flux at small scales. It is found, however, that the PCG momentum flux is also altered slightly when the Prandtl number is large enough to sustain small buoyantly moving parcels after collision

Large-Eddy Simulation of Turbulence in the Free Atmosphere and Behind Aircraft

The method of large-eddy simulation has been used for a wide variety of atmospheric flow problems. This paper gives an overview on recent applications of this method to turbulence in the free atmosphere under stably stratified conditions. In particular, flows in the wake of aircraft are studied in light of the potential impact of aircraft exhausts on the chemical and climatological state of the atmosphere. It is shown that different profiles of heat and moisture in the initial conditions of a jet representing engine exhaust gases may cause larger water saturation and hence earlier contrail formation than assumed up to now. The instability of trailing vortices in the wake of an aircraft is simulated up to the fully turbulent regime. The vertical diffusivity of aircraft exhaust is large in the vortex regime and much smaller than horizontal diffusivities in the later diffusion regime. The three-dimensional formation of a critical layer and breaking of gravity waves is simulated

Turbulent Mixing in Stably Stratified Shear Flows

Vertical mixing of momentum and heat is investigated in turbulent stratified shear flows. It is assumed that the flow has uniform shear and stratification with homogeneous turbulence and that an equilibrium is reached between kinetic and potential energy without gravity wave oscillations. A simple model is derived to estimate vertical diffusivities for Richardson numbers in between 0 and about 1. The model is based on the budgets of kinetic and potential energy and assumes a linear relationship between dissipation, shear, and vertical velocity variance for closure. Scalar fluctuations are related to shear or buoyancy frequency depending on the Richardson number. The turbulent Prandtl number and the growth rate of kinetic energy are specified as functions of this number. Model coefficients are determined mainly from laboratory measurements. Data from large-eddy simulations are used to determine the "stationary" Richardson number with balanced shear production, dissipation, and buoyancy terms. The results of the model are compared with data from laboratory experiments in air or saltwater, with measurements in the atmospheric boundary layer and in the stable troposphere, and with results from the numerical simulations. The model interpolates the observations within the scatter of the data. The analysis shows intrinsic relationships between several mixing parameters