ESP seminar announcement

[Adrian Tompkins]

*Seminar announcement*

Thursday 29 April 2021 - h15:00 (UTC+2)  - Zoom


*
*Benjamin Devenish
*
Atmospheric dispersion and air quality team, Met Office, United Kingdom



*"Modelling the dispersion of volcanic ash in the atmosphere: 10 years
on from Eyjafjallajökull"*

_*Abstract*_
It has been 10 years since the ash cloud from the eruption of
Eyjafjallajökull caused unprecedented disruption to air traffic across
Europe. During this event, the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre
(VAAC), hosted by the UK Met Office, provided advice and guidance on the
expected location of volcanic ash in the atmosphere using observations
and the atmospheric dispersion model NAME (Numerical
Atmospheric-Dispersion Modelling Environment). Rapid changes in
regulatory response and procedures during the eruption introduced the
requirement to also provide forecasts of ash concentrations,
representing a step-change in the level of interrogation of the
dispersion model output. Although disruptive, the longevity of the event
afforded the scientific community the opportunity to observe and
extensively study the transport and dispersion of a volcanic ash cloud.
I will discuss what we learnt from that event and the developments we
have made to NAME in the decade since the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull.
Much of the focus has been on improving the representation of the
eruption source parameters which are subject to considerable
uncertainty. This has included the application of Bayesian methods to
reconstructing the source from satellite data and the use of integral
plume models to determine the mass emission rate and other properties of
the eruption column. Since the downwind spread of ash is sensitive to
the distribution of ash particle size and density, considerable effort
has also been made to improve their representation in NAME including
secondary effects such as aggregation and particle shape. I will
illustrate the effect of these and other changes to NAME.

_*Bio*_
Benjamin undertakes research on turbulence and dispersion (particularly
in the atmospheric boundary layer), buoyant plumes, and the dispersion
of volcanic ash and cloud formation. He has worked in the Atmospheric
Dispersion Group since 2009 as well as from 1999 to 2003. In between, he
worked in the Boundary-layer group (2006-2009), Data Assimilation
(2005-2006) and as an EU Marie Curie research fellow at the University
of Rome 'Tor Vergata' from 2003 to 2005. Prior to joining Met Office,
Benjamin worked as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of
Newcastle. He graduated from Bristol University with B.Sc. in
mathematics and from Manchester University with Ph.D. in applied
mathematics.


This series of lectures is a new joint initiative between the Earth
System Physics group at ICTP and the Atmospherics Physics group at the
University of Trento.
Please find more information
at: https://www.ictp.it/research/esp/seminar-series.aspx
<https://www.ictp.it/research/esp/seminar-series.aspx>

Please register at: 
*https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0lcuyurDMrEtbfP9f16GRLzqF1AiT7PHN7 *
to obtain login information.
Note: you only need to do it once for the whole series.