Validation of satellite SO2 observations in northern Finland during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption

Hello,

Last Friday our paper "Validation of satellite SO₂ observations in northern Finland during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption" was published as a discussion paper in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques. The paper shows the validation results of the satellite SO₂ observations from OMI (Ozone Monitoring Instrument) and OMPS (Ozone Mapping Profiler Suite) during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption in September 2014. The volcanic plume reached Finland on several days during the month of September.

SO₂ total columns as seen from OMI TRL product during the Holuhraun fissure eruption for six days in September 2014. The dates (day/month) are indicated in the title of each panel. The blue crosses indicate the location of Sodankylä ground-based station.

The satellite products assuming a priori profile with SO₂ predominantly in the planetary boundary layer give total column values close to the ground-based data, suggesting that the volcanic SO₂ plume was located at particularly low altitudes. This is connected to the fact that this was a continuous effusive fissure eruption, without explosive activity, and most of the SO₂ was emitted into the troposphere.

The analysis of the SO₂ surface concentrations at four air quality stations in northern Finland supports the hypothesis that the volcanic plume coming from Iceland was located very close to the surface. The time evolution of the SO₂ concentrations peaks during the same days when large SO₂ total column values are measured by the Brewer in Sodankylä and enhanced SO₂ signal is visible over northern Finland from the satellite maps. This is an exceptional case because the SO₂ volcanic emission directly affect the air quality levels at surface in an otherwise pristine environment like northern Finland. 

You can read the paper from this link.

Citation: Ialongo, I., Hakkarainen, J., Kivi, R., Anttila, P., Krotkov, N. A., Yang, K., Li, C., Tukiainen, S., Hassinen, S., and Tamminen, J.: Validation of satellite SO₂ observations in northern Finland during the Icelandic Holuhraun fissure eruption, Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., 8, 599-621, doi:10.5194/amtd-8-599-2015, 2015.