Measurements of the complex refractive index of volcanic ash at 450, 546.7, and 650 nm

The detection and quantification of volcanic ash is extremely important to the aviation industry, civil defense organizations, and those in peril from volcanic ashfall. To exploit the remote sensing techniques that are used to monitor a volcanic cloud and return information on its properties, the effective complex refractive index of the volcanic ash is required. This paper presents the complex refractive index determined in the laboratory at 450.0 nm, 546.7 nm, and 650.0 nm for volcanic ash samples from eruptions of Aso (Japan), Grimsvotn (Iceland), Chaiten (Chile), Etna (Italy), Eyjafjallajokull (Iceland), Tongariro (New Zealand), Askja (Iceland), Nisyros (Greece), Okmok (Alaska), Augustine (Alaska), and Spurr (Alaska). The Becke line method was used to measure the real part of the refractive index with an accuracy of 0.01. The values measured differed between eruptions and were in the range 1.51–1.63 at 450.0 nm, 1.50–1.61 at 546.7 nm, and 1.50–1.59 at 650.0 nm. A novel method is introduced to derive the imaginary part of the refractive index from the attenuation of light by ash. The method has a precision in the range 10−3–10−4. The values for the ash imaginary refractive index ranged 0.22–1.70 × 10−3 at 450.0 nm, 0.16–1.93 × 10−3 at 546.7 nm, and 0.15–2.08 × 10−3 at 650.0 nm. The accuracy of Becke and attenuation methods was assessed by measuring the complex refractive index of Hoya neutral density glass and found to have an accuracy of <0.01 and <2 × 10−5 for the real and imaginary parts of the refractive index, respectively.