Geometric estimation of volcanic eruption column height from GOES-R near-limb imagery – Part 2: Case studies

• Published in: Atmospheric chemistry and physics Vol. 21; no. 16; pp. 12207 - 12226
• Main Authors: Horváth, Ákos, Girina, Olga A, Carr, James L, Wu, Dong L, Bril, Alexey A, Mazurov, Alexey A, Melnikov, Dmitry V, Hoshyaripour, Gholam Ali, Buehler, Stefan A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus GmbH 16-08-2021; Copernicus Publications
• ISSN: 1680-7324; 1680-7316; 1680-7324
• DOI: 10.5194/acp-21-12207-2021

In a companion paper (Horváth et al., 2021), we
introduced a new technique to estimate volcanic eruption column height from
extremely oblique near-limb geostationary views. The current paper
demonstrates and validates the technique in a number of recent eruptions,
ranging from ones with weak columnar plumes to subplinian events with
massive umbrella clouds and overshooting tops that penetrate the
stratosphere. Due to its purely geometric nature, the new method is shown to
be unaffected by the limitations of the traditional brightness temperature
method, such as height underestimation in subpixel and semitransparent
plumes, ambiguous solutions near the tropopause temperature inversion, or
the lack of solutions in undercooled plumes. The side view height estimates
were in good agreement with plume heights derived from ground-based video
and satellite stereo observations, suggesting they can be a useful
complement to established techniques.