Is there anybody conducting a study, similar to the one in the USA after 9/11, on the climate effect of no aircraft polution over Northern Europe? As I recall the average temparature over the USA increased by 1.5C during the 4 days it was a \'no fly zone\'.
Unfotunately I cannot quote the source because I did not carry the report over when I changed computers.

The method, as I recall, is to look for an increase in the daily range of temperatures. That was larger after the grounding following 9/11.

A number of people have commented on the unusually clear skies at the moment - and it\'s a very clear sky above London at the moment (11:11 AM), though there\'s some high hazy cloud to the far west. It\'s no doubt a bit hard to disentangle the various effects: presumably the ash wouldn\'t be coming this far south unless certain weather conditions applied and those conditions shouldn\'t be confused with any effect the ash itself might be causing as well as the absence of aircraft. It will be interesting to see whether anyone does do that analysis.

The problem with such a study is that it will be difficult to separate any effect from the drop in airplane contrails from that caused by the injection of huge amounts of sulfate aerosols into the stratosphere.

While there could be a rise in incoming solar radiation (and a rise in global temp) due to clearing of contrails due to the shutdown of air traffic over Northern Europe, the Sulfate aerosols scatter, absorb and reflect solar radiation back out into space. This tends to heat the Stratosphere, but cool the Troposphere.

After the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991 global temp dropped by nearly 0.5C due to the vast amount of sulfates that the volcano pumped into the Stratosphere. It took about 2 years for global temp. to return to pre-eruption levels. This Icelandic volcano may not effect global temp. to that degree as the eruption may not be large as large as Pinatubo (Pinatubo was the largest eruption of the 20th Century), but, it will have some effect.

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From reports I\'ve read, the current Icelandic eruption is a low-Sulfur/Sulphur event. For example, see this Saturday Blog by a UW/Seattle atmospheric scientist. It has comparative graphics from NASA/AQUA satellite:
http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/

Apology to sprinterst for continuing this SO2 thought in a Contrail Thread.

[Edited for typo.]

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"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Greetings from coastal Washington state, the scenic US Pacific Northwest.

There were some vapour trails yesterday, apparently from aircraft overflying but not landing or taking off. The otherwise clear blue sky over London now has continuous creation and dissipation of trails. Back to normal it would seem.

This was brought to my attention recently:
http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/planes-or-volcano/

The ash did spread as far south as London. My son who lives near Basildon washed his car on Saturday. On Sunday it had a fine coating.

I noticed that one of the popular newspapers had this headline on Sunday: VILECANO.

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Cpdn news

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Lightning visible in the plume ..... Incredible Images of Iceland Volcano from Just a Few Kilometers



Lightning visible in the plume of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland on April 17, 2010.

Astronomer Snaevarr Gudmundsson from Iceland was able to travel to within just a few kilometers from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano ....... \"I stayed near the volcano from about 16:00 hours to 22:00 hours on Saturday and watched its impressive eruption,\" Gudmundsson said. \"Amazing event, awesome explosions of 1200 °C hot magma reaching ice and water. I shot more than 550 images during these hours of continuous enjoyment. Sounds ridiculous but its ever changing appearance was never boring.\"

The massive plume put on an impressive display – from lightning forming within the plume to an incredible amount of spewing ash. On one of following pictures you can see helicopter for size comparison of the plume


Read the rest of Incredible Images of Iceland Volcano from Just a Few Kilometers Away (594 words)

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/04/18/incredible-images-of-iceland-volcano-from-just-a-few-kilometers-away/

http://www.universetoday.com/2010/04/18/incredible-images-of-iceland-volcano-from-just-a-few-kilometers-away/


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