Intercomparison of Metop-A SO2 measurements during the 2010- 2011 Icelandic eruptions

The European Space Agency project Satellite Monitoring of Ash and Sulphur Dioxide for the mitigation of Avi­ ation Hazards, was introduced after the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallaj o kull in the spring of 2010 to facilitate the development of an optimal End­to­End System for Volcanic Ash Plume Monitoring and Predic­ tion. The Eyjafjallaj o kull plume drifted towards Europe and caused major disruptions of European air traffic for several weeks affecting the everyday life of millions of people. The limitations in volcanic plume monitoring and prediction capabilities gave birth to this observational system which is based on comprehensive satellite­derived ash plume and sulphur dioxide [SO 2 ] level estimates, as well as a widespread validation using supplementary satellite, aircraft and ground­based measurements. Inter­comparison of the volcanic total SO 2 column and plume height observed by GOME­2/Metop­A and IASI/Metop­A are shown before, during and after the Eyjaf­ jallaj o kull 2010 eruptions as well as for the 2011 Gr i msv o tn eruption. Co­located ground­based Brewer Spectro­ photometer data extracted from the World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre for de Bilt, the Nether­ lands, are also compared to the different satellite estimates. Promising agreement is found for the two different types of instrument for the SO 2 columns with linear regression coefficients ranging around from 0.64 when comparing the different instruments and 0.85 when comparing the two different IASI algorithms. The agree­ ment for the plume height is lower, possibly due to the major differences between the height retrieval part of the GOME2 and IASI algorithms. The comparisons with the Brewer ground­based station in de Bilt, The Nether­ lands show good qualitative agreement for the peak of the event however stronger eruptive signals are required for a longer quantitative comparison.