Iceland volcano project
This NERC consortium project aims to improve our understanding of volcanic plumes. The project follows the Eyjafjallajökull Icelandic eruption in May 2010. During the eruption, which caused significant disruption to air traffic, the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) played a leading role in monitoring the plume
This project will be led by Prof Stephen Mobbs, head of NCAS.
The GLOMAP group at Leeds, led by Prof Ken Carslaw, will explore ways to improve the prediction of acidic sulphate aerosol following future eruptions. The Eyjafjallajökull eruption was dominated by ash, but many previous Icelandic eruptions have emitted huge amounts of sulphur dioxide gas, which forms acidic sulphate aerosol in the atmosphere. Our work will investigate how well current operational dispersion models used by the Met Office can predict acidic sulphate, and how these models could be improved to predict the effects of a much larger sulphur-dominated eruption.
Our research in Anja Schmidt’s PhD has previously explored the effects of the 1783–4 Icelandic Laki eruption on aerosol and climate. We showed that the eruption would have had substantial effects on aerosols, clouds and climate.