I realise that the volcano that is currently erupting in Iceland has caused a lot of problems for a lot of people.
However, if I can see one plus side it’s all the impromptu atmospheric science that is going on around it. For example, the first paper about the volcano, which is looking at the electric charge of the ash plume from balloon measurements taken over Scotland, has just been published. [As an interesting aside, one the instruments that was used in this work uses the plastic case that holds the toy in a Kinder Egg!]
This is remarkably quick work. To collect data in April and then publish a paper in May is almost unheard of.
There’s plenty more examples of this and I’m sure lots of interesting science will emerge in the coming years as a result of this unforeseen event.
In Manchester where I work, a lot of people have put their usual work to one side to concentrate on the plume. One of my colleagues is currently in the Shetland Isles repairing an instrument that we moved up there last month to observe the plume and many others are away manning instruments on research planes that are investigating the plume or analysing the data that has been collected.
This is all an inconvenience and big projects are getting delayed but many people are working really hard to understand the ash cloud and are finding out new things along the way. So it’s not all bad.
R G Harrison, K A Nicoll, Z Ulanowski and T A Mather (2010). Self-charging of the Eyjafjallajökull volcanic ash plume Environ. Res. Lett., 5
Andy Russell's weather and climate blog 
May 28, 2010 at 5:33 pm |
hi have read your blog whilst looking for information about a link between coughing and volcanic ash. Here in Norfolk we seem to have had a covering of dust on our cars for weeks, with this in mind I got to wondering if there is a link to this awful dry cough I have had for about four weeks on and off at varying levels. It seems every one I speak to has or knows someone who has similar symptoms ( I realise living in Norfolk, most people, may mean relatives! only joking ) My daughter was admitted to hospital yesterday with a serious asthma attack, but she had been on holiday in a forest and so the pollen was considered to be the main factor maybe I am being alarmist but am fed up with this dam cough and Jemimah being in hospital. Sorry if this is not anything to do with your blog but I feel better for at lease getting this off my chest, if not the cough. Yours Sally Lawson