Three Dimensional Ash Dispersion
Modeling within Google Earth :
Past Eruptions and Operational Monitoring
Peter W Webley 1,2,
John E Bailey 1,2, Ken Dean 2, Jon Dehn
2
1Arctic Region Supercomputing Center, 909 Koyukuk
Drive, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775, United States
2Alaska Volcano Observatory, Geophysical institute, 903 Koyukuk
Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775, United States
Virtual Globes have become widely used for visualization in the scientific environment. They have become a tool for displaying two/three dimensional geophysical data operationally and retrospectively. There are over 100 active volcanoes in the North Pacific (NOPAC) Region which includes those on the Aleutian Islands, Alaska Peninsula, Alaska mainland, and the Kamchatka Peninsula and Kurile Islands, Russia. Volcanic ash is a major operational hazard and is a serious threat to human health and the aviation industry. The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) monitors the volcanoes within the North Pacific (NOPAC) region and uses a volcanic ash dispersion model, Puff, to routinely track the ash clouds from volcanic eruptions.
The model uses information such as event duration, size of ash plume and start time (from satellite or seismic data) to predict the movement of the ash cloud released. Puff allows the analyst to track a set number of particles, giving the location in space and time. In the recent past, Puff has been displayed in two dimensional maps of ash location, color coded by altitude and relative ash concentration. This is a useful tool for operational analysis but does not take full advantage of the three dimensional nature of the data. A virtual globe such as Google Earth allows the analyst to display markers at known locations. Given the three dimensionality of the Puff model, Google Earth becomes a tool to display these predictions of ash dispersion in various formats. Puff is a global ash dispersion model and the predicted ash cloud can be displayed quickly and automatically for any volcano. Here we show operational Puff predictions of the volcanic ash in three dimensions, both as iso-surfaces and particles, and study past eruptions to illustrate the capabilities that the Virtual Globes can provide.
URL:
http://puff.images.alaska.edu/Google_Earth.shtml