Study on the volcanic ash cloud with Feng Yun-3 meteorological satellite data

Volcano eruption can produce a mass of volcanic ash floating in the air for a long period, which will seriously threaten the aerial planes safety, and cause the air pollution, it could do harm to people’s living environment and their health. Take the Iceland Eyjafjallajokull volcano as an example which erupted in April to May 2010, the volcano ash cloud were derived with the visible and infrared scanning radiometer of FengYun-3(FY-3 VIRR) meteorological satellite data. The medium wave infrared (MWIR) and the thermal infrared split windows (THIR-SW) data were used separately. the MODIS THIR-SW data were also be used to retrieve ash cloud to test the results derived from FY-3 VIRR data. It showed that the MWIR was more applicable for the ash cloud retrieving than the THIR-SW with FY-3 VIRR data, and the threshold value should be adjusted to around negative 1 rather than 0 for VIRR THIR-SW data. And the threshold should be adjusted with the THIR-SW of FY-3. The ash cloud radiation and bright temperature(BT), spatial distribution characteristics were also analyzed quantitatively with the two channels data. The study could provide parameters for the prediction of volcanic ash cloud dispersion simulate. When the real temperature of lava flow were high enough, the sensor will show a false bright temperature, how to retrieve the real temperature of the higher lava flow is a problem need to be studied in the future.