Dan's Wild Wild Science Journal

The Iceland Volcano ash cloud is clearly visible in this image taken from space today. Image from NASA Aqua satellite in true colour. click image for much bigger version.

The ash is back.

Ireland has just announced airspace closings for tomorrow and there is now concern that the ash may start to seriously effect flights in the UK. If Gatwick and Heathrow in London shut down the impact will be felt worldwide.

Winds at 10,000 feet for tomorrow night. Wind will flow paralell to the black lines. Model data ctsy. Penn State.

Looking at the model data tonight, the greatest threat seems to be Ireland but there may be a narrow window late tomorrow when the ash will be funneled by the upper level winds toward the UK. Late in the week a high will build south of Iceland and this should keep the ash away from Europe for a few days.

One bit of good news. The ash is mainly below 20,000 feet. This means a transatlantic flright from Amsterdam or Paris will be able to fly well above it.

The airspace shut down a couple of weeks ago was much more severe because the ash was up to 34,000 feet. (I know I usually do all metric on this blog but air traffic around the world still uses flight levels in feet)

Now another image from the same satellite.

In the previous post I showed the image from the Aqua satellite pass over Nashville today.

I went back and grabbed a shot taken just about a year ago of the same area. The before and after images show very well the magnitude of the floods.

Here is the image from May 21 2009.

AQUA image of Nashville and Middle TN. on 21 May 2009. Nashville is dead center in the image. The Cumberland River is visible but not easily. Click for full res. Ctsy. NASA.

Now here is the image from my previous post showing the same area today at 1850 GMT (1:50 pm local Nashville time).

The image taken today shows the magnitude of the severe flood.

Could this flood be related to climate change? Possibly. I wrote a post on that a few days ago.

More soon,

Dan

The unpronounceable Volcano is causing air traffic problems again. Photo from Iceland Met Office. Photo by Olafur Sigurjonsson

Ireland is closing it’s airspace at 7am Tuesday morning because of ash. The ash is below 20,000 feet so it may not be too disruptive to transatlantic air traffic. The ash is expected to drift over the UK later Tuesday and this may impact Heathrow and Gatwick. If that happens, you will see major disruptions.

Below is the latest forecast from the UK Met office:

Ash forecast courtesy UK Met Office.

The eruption shows no sign of abating. Thankfully, Katla the more dangerous volcano nearby is (so far) quiet.

I’ll post updates if things change. Looking at the upper air charts as well…
dan

The Spirit Rover on Mars hasn’t been heard from in a few weeks now.

This was expected because it’s winter up there and the sunlight, and the cold, have drained the batteries. It is assumed that Spirit went into hibernation mode as it was designed to do. Hopefully it will wake up in the Spring.

Hopefully.

There are no guarantees and we cannot claim we didn’t get our moneys worth. They were designed for 90 days. They’ve been going for 5 years!!

Now, here is the rabidly cool part.

Before it hibernated, it took pics of where it was parked for the winter. On a slope, so that the solar panels would face south and get a bit more sun.

It took pictures of itself and of the surrounding area. Using newly developed software, NASA created an image of Spirit sitting on Mars from Spirit’s own pictures. The image below shows what you would see standing a few feet from Spirit on Mars! It’s not a simulation. It’s taken by the camera you see on the Rover!

All I can say is DUDE!

Here it is below:

Spirit Rover on Mars. The camera that took the picture is on the white mast. Click the image for a much larger version!

I wonder what is around that bend up ahead….

dan

Click image for the full resolution! The ash layer is at 10-16,000 feet now instead of the higher altitudes over the weekend. From NASA. This new cloud is headed toward the UK.

There is actually some good news tonight. The ash cloud over Europe has diminished and begun to sink south of Paris and London. Here is the outlook for tomorrow regarding the no go areas.

Ash extent forecast for Tuesday 7 am London time. From UK Met Office.

Most of England is in the clear by 1 PM! From UK Met Office.

Late word tonight that the eruption has picked back up. The current wind flow will steer the new ash cloud toward the UK, Central England in particular. So the openings of the airports tomorrow may be brief. See below.

The ash will be at a lower altitude but it may become more dense and put an end to the planned reopening of the airspace over the UK tomorrow. Further east there is more hope for flights.

Keflavik Radar from Iceland Met Office. No plume from the ash currently being detected!

The weather radar at the Keflivik Airport is not seeing a plume from the ash cloud this evening. The last report from the UK Met. Office is a plume height of 16,000 feet. This is much lower than over much of the last 72 hours.

There is also good news on the flight restrictions. The lower levels are looking much better. It looks possible that flights could operate from Paris tomorrow, and even some domestic UK flights might be possible.

Restricted flight zones due to ash from Iceland. Image from UK Met Office/NATS