2011-09-12

Dust and ash storm

Still dry weather, and wind, and lot of dust and ash blowing around. Source of particulate matter in Reykjavik from south of Langjökull; not only ash. Also, a clear source on Vatnajökull (see animation below).

This made for poor air quality, as well as poor visibility. An example from greater Reykjavik area below. View from underneath Helgafell towards Esja.

20110912342

Satellite images show this well (images from NASA/Rapidfire).

Dust/ash storm in Iceland 12 September 2011

2011-09-10

Ash blowing off Vatnjökull

Today, 10 September 2011, there is a lot of ash blowing off the surface of western Vatnajökull.

There is more ash blowing around, as can be seen from the satellite image from 12:30 today.

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MODIS image from NASA/Rapidfire.

The source is also quite clearly seen on this image, taken at 12:15.

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MODIS image from NASA/Rapidfire.

2011-09-09

Dust and ash storms in Iceland today

Sediments from pro-glacial lakes near Langjökull, and ash from the Eyjafjalljökull and Grímsvötn eruptions (most likely mixture of those) were blowing around today !

20110909_modis_A2011252_1130

MODIS image taken 2011-09-09 at 11:30 (NASA/Rapidfire).

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MODIS image taken 2011-09-09 at 13:25.

modis_P2011252_1505_crop

MODIS image 2011-09-09 at 15:05.

Made for very bad air quality, for instance at Raufarfell.

image

2011-09-03

Article about dust storms and air quality

An article about dust storms and air quality in Reykjavík was just published in the journal Atmospheric Environment.

Here is a link to the corrected proof http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231011005061.

Also welcome to drop me an e-mail for the final version.

The reference is:

Throstur Thorsteinsson, Guðrún Gísladóttir, Joanna Bullard and Grant McTainsh. 2011.
Dust storm contributions to airborne particulate matter in Reykjavík, Iceland.
Atmospheric Environment, 45: 5924 - 5933.

Iceland_28apr2007_bw

Part of Figure 5. MODIS image from NASA/Rapidfire.