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UNIVERSITY OF BUCHAREST
FACULTY OF PHYSICS Guest
2024-11-23 18:17 |
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Conference: Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2016 Meeting
Section: Atmosphere and Earth Science; Environment Protection
Title:
Volcanic ash plume modelled in a windy environment with PlumeRise web-tool
Authors:
Denisa URLEA(1,2),Sabina STEFAN(1)
Affiliation:
1 University of Bucharest, Faculty of Physics, P.O.BOX Magurele, Bucharest, Romania
2 Romanian Air Traffic Services, Ion Ionescu Dela Brad , nr. 10. Bucharest, Romania
E-mail
denisaurlea@gmail.com
Keywords:
volcanic ash plume, pollutant, air space contamination
Abstract:
Any small concentration of volcanic ash injected into the atmosphere can lead to widespread disruption to aviation. Turbine engines are particularly threatened by ingestion of airborne ash, and aircraft surfaces may be subject of abrasion and on the long-term corrosion. Romania has a fortunate geographical position being very far from any volcanic zone. Nevertheless, our country could be easily affected with the appropriate combination between atmospheric circulation and type of eruption. In order to estimate, prevent and manage this kind of threat it is necessary to understand all the proprieties of the main hazard’s trigger as the erupted ash column. The purpose of this study is to investigate, estimate and evaluate a volcanic ash column to find it’s critical proprieties that gives enough energy to travel towards Romanian air space. We were using the PlumeRise web-tool developed by M.J. Woodhouse et al.(2013) [1], which is a mathematical model based on the fluid dynamics of turbulent buoyant plumes in a windy and moist atmosphere. It also takes into account the heat transfer between hot pyroclasts and the surrounding atmospheric gases. Using the model were studied the relationships between gas mass fraction of the column, temperature of the pyroclasts and the height of the resulted plume and the solids mass fraction found at the plume level. In addition was analyzed the influence of the high level wind speed over the ash column behavior. The results display that it is possible to obtain two types of pollutant column consistent with the initial conditions. It is been found a “weak plume” with poor chances to affect Romanian air space and a “strong plume” which could give notable air space contamination.
References:
[1] Woodhouse, M.J., A.J. Hogg, J.C. Phillips, R.S.J. Sparks, Interaction between volcanic plumes and wind during the 2010 Eyjafjallajőkull eruption, Iceland, Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth 118,92-109.
Acknowledgement:
The authors gratefully aknowledge the PlumeRise web-tool (https://www.plumerise.bris.ac.uk/) used in this paper .
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