Another Icelandic volcano is erupting. Last year, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajoekull Volcano erupted, paralyzing air traffic and grounding planes across Europe. Grímsvötn starting spewing late Saturday evening. The volcano, which has been dormant since 2004, has already closed Iceland’s air space. The disruption caused by this volcanic event are anticipated to be less severe since ground-based radar measurements in Iceland are showing that the plume is reaching higher altitudes than Eyjafjallajoekull’s.
The eruptions are being monitored by the European Space Agency with satellite imagery and maps being released to the public. Monitoring includes ground-based radar measurements of the plume height (12-17km), predicting the path of volcanic ash, and sulfur-dioxide emissions.
Ash plume from the Grímsvötn volcano as seen on 23 May at 12.00 GMT by the MERIS instrument on board ESA's Envisat satellite. Although the image shows the plume drifting southwest, models predict that most of the ash will be blown northeast over the Arctic Ocean. Credits: ESAMeasurements of sulphur dioxide being carried from the Grímsvötn volcano towards the northeast of Iceland on May 22–23. Data from the Eumetsat MetOp satellite's Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer and the NASA EOS-AURA satellite's Ozone Monitoring Instrument were used to generate this animation. Credits: BIRA/IASB–Belgian Institute for Space AeronomyThe animation shows the forecast positions of volcanic ash (total column in units of g/m2) from 20.00 GMT on 21 May to 06.00 on 27 May from the Grímsvötn volcanic eruption. The emission source varies in time and assumes a uniform height profile up to the reported plume heights measured by radar. It is also constrained by total fine ash mass determined by satellite. Credits: NILU
