Comparison of TOMS and AVHRR volcanic ash retrievals from the August 1992 eruption of Mt. Spurr

Abstract

On August 19, 1992, the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) onboard NOAA‐12 and NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) onboard the Nimbus‐7 satellite simultaneously detected and mapped the ash cloud from the eruption of Mt. Spurr, Alaska. The spatial extent and geometry of the cloud derived from the two datasets are in good agreement and both AVHRR split window IR (11–12µm brightness temperature difference) and the TOMS UV Aerosol Index (0.34–0.38µm ultraviolet backscattering and absorption) methods give the same range of total cloud ash mass. Redundant methods for determination of ash masses in drifting volcanic clouds offer many advantages for potential application to the mitigation of aircraft hazards.