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| Titel |
Timescales of aerosol formation and depletion: a case study for the Kilauea volcano |
| VerfasserIn |
Marloes Penning de Vries, Steffen Beirle, Thomas Wagner |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2014
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 16 (2014) |
| Datensatznummer |
250096475
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2014-11982.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Satellite observations of atmospheric trace gases have revolutionized our insights regarding the location and
amount of various pollutants. In addition, it has been demonstrated recently that atmospheric lifetimes can be
derived by analyzing the downwind decay of the pollution plumes from point sources.
Here we present an analysis of the downwind evolution of the SO2 (GOME-2) and the aerosol (MODIS) plume from the Kilauea volcano (Hawaii) during a period of strongly enhanced passive degassing in March-October 2008. The SO2 and AOD patterns observed from space and the wind fields according to ECMWF stay rather stable over several months, making this an ideal case for such kind of process study.
Using a relatively simple mathematical analysis, an e-folding lifetime of SO2 and the total release of SO2 can be estimated simultaneously on the basis of monthly mean SO2 maps and wind fields. We estimate the lifetime of volcanic SO2 from Kilauea to be about 1-2 days.
By assuming first order time constants for both the AOD formation and depletion, the observed downwind pattern of AOD can be described, and the AOD formation can be clearly related to the SO2 depletion. For the aerosol depletion, a time-constant of 2-6 days was estimated. |
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