study on an end-to-end system for volcanic ash plume

STUDY ON AN END-TO-END SYSTEM
FOR VOLCANIC ASH PLUME
MONITORING AND PREDICTION
Overview and Objectives
The SMASH study started activities in September 2012, as part of the General Studies Programme of the European
Space Agency. SMASH is led by CGS SpA , and relies on the partnership of two Volcano Observatories (the “Institut
de Physique du Globe de Paris” -IPGP – and the “Istituto Nazionale di Geologia e Vulcanologia” of Rome –INGV) and
three scientific institutions: the University of Oxford, the Finnish Meteorological Institute and the German Aerospace
Center. The broad scope of SMASH is the exploitation of current polar-orbiting satellite instruments for retrieval of
quantitative measurement of volcanic SO2 and ash clouds parameters, such as: concentration, height, particle size
distribution. In particular, main objectives of SMASH, to be achieved in a time frame of 18 months (until march 2014),
are the following: 1) development of innovative satellite information products characterizing significant geophysical
parameters at the eruption source; 2) development of innovative satellite information products for quantitative retrieval
of volcanic ash and SO2 plumes; 3) definition of an optimal end-to-end system for volcanic ash monitoring and
prediction for Europe, based on the existing remote sensing infrastructure.
The SMASH Team
The SMASH project team consists of :
Compagnia Generale per lo Spazio S.p.A (Italy) Prime Contractor, having a wide experience in the
design and development of prototype end-to-end information systems based on satellite data and in
the research and development of aerosol retrieval algorithms based on satellite remote sensing data.
CGS will contribute to the development of the new MODIS quantitative products ( by elaborating
MODIS VIS-VNIR-SWIR data) , to the definition of the end to end system and the user requirements
for future EO missions. CGS has been prime contractor of the ESA DUE GLOBVOLCANO.
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris – IPGP (France) Sub Contractor , will bring the specific
expertise in volcano modelling and use of satellite based information about volcanoes ; IPGP will be
responsible of User Requirements definition and of the source term determination.
IPGP has been coordinator of the EVOSS project ( EU FP7 , 2010-2013).
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia – INGV (Italy) Sub Contractor, will bring, beside the
expertise in volcanology, it specific experience in satellite remote sensing algorithms for Ash and
SO2 retrieval by MODIS TIR data ; moreover , INGV –having broad access to ground data – will be
responsible for the Validation activities over ETNA test site.
University of Oxford (United Kingdom) Sub Contractor , scientific expert of IASI sensor data will
develop new algorithms for quantitative retrieval of SO2 and Ash by IASI sensor .
German Aerospace Centre - DLR (Germany) Sub Contractor , scientific expert of GOME-2 data will develop improved
algorithms for quantitative retrieval (height, column) of SO2 , based on data from METOP-A and B .
Finnish Meteorological Institute (Finland) Sub Contractor , scientific expert of OMI data will develop
new algorithms for retrieval of SO2 height by exploiting OMI sensor .
Current Status
The study is at the stage of development of the new information products ( source term determination, quantitative ash
and SO2 by polar orbiting sensors) . First results of the study have been presented at the Second Progress Meeting
(PM2) , held end of May 2013. Product validation activities will start by July 2013 over Etna (Italy) and EyjafjallajÖkull
(Iceland) volcano test sites.
Satellite image of the Eyjafjallajökull ash plume, by
Terra-­‐MODIS in Visible-NIR, at 12:50 UTC on 19 April
2010. The false color inset (MIR band 21, TIR band 31,
TIR band 32) displays the near-­‐source thermal structure
of the plume and two ‘hot-spot’ pixels (in yellow) used
by IPGP [Kaminski et al. (2011)] for the sub-resolution
“dual-­‐band” estimate of the mass flow rate on the
ground, and the height reached by the plume
Contacts:
Lucia Tampellini , Compagnia Generale Per lo Spazio SpA [email protected]
Claus Zehner , European Space Agency [email protected]