Elbern, Hendrik

Franke, Philipp

Friese, Elmar

Fröhlich, Luise

Haas, Sarah

Lange, Anne Caroline

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Simulating the propagation of sulphur dioxide emissions from the fissureeruption in the Holuhraun lava field (Iceland) with the EURAD-IM

Geophysical Research AbstractsVol. 17, EGU2015-11853-2, 2015EGU General Assembly 2015© Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License.Simulating the propagation of sulphur dioxide emissions from the fissureeruption in the Holuhraun lava field (Iceland) with the EURAD-IMLuise Fröhlich (1,2), Philipp Franke (1,2), Elmar Friese (1), Sarah Haas (2), Anne Caroline Lange (1,2), HendrikElbern (1,2)(1) Rhenish Institute for Environmental Research at the University of Cologne, Germany, (2) Institute for Energy and ClimateResearch 8 (Troposphere), Research Center Jülich, GermanyIn the emergency case of a volcano eruption accurate forecasts of the transport of ash and gas emissions are crucialfor health protection and aviation safety.In the frame of Earth System Knowledge Platform (ESKP) near real-time forecasts of ash and SO2 dispersionemitted by active volcanoes are simulated by the European Air pollution Dispersion Inverse Model (EURAD-IM).The model is driven by the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF) and includes detailed gas phase andparticle dynamics modules, which allow for quantitative estimates of measured volcano releases. Former simu-lations, for example related to the Eyjafjallajökull outbreak in 2010, were in good agreement with measurementrecords of particle number and SO2 at several European stations.At the end of August 2014 an fissure eruption has begun on Iceland in the Holuhraun lava field to the north-east of the Bardarbunga volcano system. In contrast to the explosive eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, theHoluhraun eruption is rather effusive with a large and continuous flow of lava and a significant release of sulphurdioxide (SO2) in the lower troposphere, while ash emissions are insignificant.Since the Holuhraun fissure eruption has started, daily forecasts of SO2 dispersion are produced for the Eu-ropean region (15 km horizontal resolution grid) and published on our website (http://apps.fz-juelich.de/iek-8/RIU/vorhersage_node.php). To simulate the transport of volcanic emissions, realistic source terms like massrelease rates of ash and SO2 or plume heights are required. Since no representative measurements are currentlyavailable for the simulations, rough qualitative assumptions, based on reports from the Icelandic Met Office (IMO),are used. However, frequent comparisons with satellite observations show that the actual propagation of the vol-canic emissions is generally well reflected by the model.In the middle of September 2014 several European measurement sides recorded extremely high SO2 concentra-tions at ground level which were predicted quite accurately in advance by the EURAD-IM. Further more, thesimulations indicate that the unusual high SO2 values are due to the transport of sulphur dioxide rich air from theBardarbunga towards continental Europe.Presently, SO2 dispersion forecasts are also conducted on a finer spatial resolution grid (1 km) for the Icelandicregion. These simulations will be validated against measurements from different observation sides in Iceland.

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Simulating the propagation of sulphur dioxide emissions from the fissureeruption in the Holuhraun lava field (Iceland) with the EURAD-IM

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