Simulations and evaluation of the transport of the Holuhraun 2014 SO2 emissions with FLEXPART, WRF-chem and satellite data

The eruption of Holuhraun in August 2014, in central Iceland, is the country’s largest lava and gas eruption since the Lakagígar eruption in 1783. Although very little volcanic ash was produced, large quantities of SO2 were released into the atmosphere. Two models have been used to simulate the dispersion and transport of SO2 for this event, the Lagrangian particle dispersion model FLEXPART and the on-line coupled model WRF-Chem. Whereas in the FLEXPART calculations no anthropogenic emissions or aqueous-phase chemical reactions are considered, in the WRF-Chem calculations, both are fully included. The results of the simulations are evaluated against satellite (GOME2B and OMI) data, as well as ground based SO2 concentration data. The analysis is conducted on a data management platform, which is currently developed in the frame of the ESA-funded project TAMP “Technology and Atmospheric Mission Platform”: it provides comprehensive functionalities to visualize and numerically compare data from different sources (model, satellite and ground-measurements).

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