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Volcanic eruptions have caused very costly disturbances of international air traffic. This problem has been dealt with by simulating the formation and migration of dangerous ash plumes. However, the results of the simulations have sometimes been too safe, producing ash clouds that are too large. This was especially the case for the North Atlantic in 2010 (Eyjafjallajökull) and 2011 (Grímsvötn). Since 2012, an international cooperation team led by the Disaster Prevention Research Institute (DPRI) of Kyoto University has conducted airborne measurements of volcanic ash concentrations in the plume from Mount Sakurajima in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. This volcano was chosen because of its frequent but limited eruptions, which allow close observation. These measurement campaigns have provided data showing gravitational flattening of the plume, a new and previously unknown dispersion process of volcanic plumes. A new and previously unknown fallout process, called streak fallout, also has been measured. Results concerning plume flux, concentration distributions, aerosol (PM10) content of the plume, and content of very fine particles (PM2.5 and PM1) are presented, and the ways by which the observational methods can be used to produce reliable initial data and boundary values for simulations of plume dispersion are discussed.
Detailed mobile measurement of gases and fine particulate matter has been reported in the literature to be suitable to exhibit the air pollutants concentration in populated areas. This concentration is linked to the increase of number of cars, construction areas, industries and other emission sources. However, fixed measurement stations, mostly operated by environmental agencies, are limited in numbers and cannot cover a large area in monitoring. For this reason, to overcome this drawback, mobile measurements of the variability of gases (such as O3, NO, NO2) and particulate matter concentration were carried out during this study using an instrumented car. This car was able to deliver measurement results of all these compounds in a large area. The experimental results in this work demonstrate a large spatial variability of gases and fine particulate matters mainly depended on the traffic density and the location. These effects are especially obvious in the city core and the high traffic roads. In terms of fine particulate matter, this becomes evident for PM 10 and PM 2.5, where the mass and number concentration increases with arriving these zones.
Fine particulate matter is well known for its adverse health effects for the population. It is still one of the major problems of air pollution in Germany. The limit values of fine particulate matter PM10 are often exceeded in bigger German cities. Therefore the level of fine particulate matter and other air pollutants are routinely monitored at single hot spots in the cities by measurement stations of the environmental state agencies. However, it is of high interest, what levels of concentrations of fine particulate matter are to be found in those areas, where no measurement stations are placed. Moreover, it is important to know, how strong exceedings of fine particulate matter concentrations can be influenced by meteorological conditions. In this paper fine particulate matter concentrations are measured with a car, which was equipped with measurement systems for fine particulate matter and which was driving through industrial and rural areas of the state North Rhine Westphalia in Germany. By this means it was possible to measure coarse and fine fractions of particulate matter continuously during driving. In this way the horizontal variation of fine particulate matter could be investigated throughout the state. The measurements comprised dust concentrations of the fractions PM10 (coarse), PM2.5 (more fine) and PM1(very fine), which are addressed within the European environmental legislation. Moreover, every second during driving the full size distribution of particles between 250 nm and 32 μm diameter was measured. Therefore it could be investigated, at what places more bigger or more smaller particles were present under specific meteorological conditions. The mobile car measurements were performed as a case study in a situation with a strong meteorological inversion layer. The mobile measurements of the horizontal variation of fine particulate matter in industrial and rural areas are compared with model prediction calculations. Moreover, using backward trajectories a source appointment of the fine particulate matter could be performed.
Airborne measurements have proved to be an important tool for the investigation of volcanic emission plumes, industrial pollution plumes, fugitive emissions and urban pollution plumes. In this paper several examples are demonstrated, how these investigations can be performed by light and microlight propeller aircraft. Throughout the last years innovative aircraft were developed in the light and microlight class showing an excellent flight performance. This enables airborne measurements, which were performed in former years normally by big jet engine driven research aircraft. Moreover, these light and microlight aircraft are equipped with piston motors, which are sturdy enough to operate even in adverse and harsh flight conditions, e.g. in volcanic plumes with high ash concentration. Additionally, turbo charged versions of these airborne piston motors are available, which allow flight altitudes of 7000m – 9000m enabling a large variety of research missions. Another advantage of light and microlight research aircraft is that they are quite cost effective and have a comparatively short certification process for the installation of new measurement equipment. This made it possible to respond fast to the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull 2010 and Grimsvötn 2011 with research flights in volcanic ash plumes over Germany and Iceland. In this way it was possible to deliver real airborne measurements additional to the ash plume model calculations of the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC). In this paper examples of airborne measurements in the volcanic plumes of the recent eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes are given. Moreover examples are presented, which highlight the outstanding capabilities of these aircraft for pinpointing industrial emissions and for characterizing urban pollution plumes.