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IAVWOPSG/4-WP/40
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International Civil Aviation Organization
WORKING PAPER / IAVWOPSG/4-WP/40
14/7/08

INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS VOLCANO WATCH OPERATIONS GROUP (IAVWOPSG)

FOURTH MEETING

Paris, France, 15 to 19 September 2008

Agenda Item / 5: / Operation of the IAVWOPSG
5.1: / Implementation of the IAVW, including the IAVW Management Report

VAAC WASHINGTON MANAGEMENT REPORT

(Presented by United States)

SUMMARY
Pursuant to Conclusion 1/2 of the IAVWOPSG/1 Meeting, VAAC Provider States were invited to provide a concise IAVW management report to be presented at every IAVWOPSG meeting covering the period elapsed since the previous meeting and addressing the main features of the IAVW operations, highlighting any recent developments and difficulties and future planned developments. The report prepared by the United Kingdom is attached for the group’s review and consideration.

1.Executive Summary

1.1This report is provided in response to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) International Airway Volcano Watch Operations Group (IAVWOPSG) Conclusion 1/2 where it was agreed that each Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) operating under the ICAO IAVW Program provide a management report to the Secretary of the IAVWOPSG that describes the operations of the VAAC, implementation issues and future developmental work. This report covers the operations of the Washington VAAC (W-VAAC) for the period Jan 2007 through June 2008. During this period, the W-VAAC produced 2679 Volcanic Ash Advisories (VAA) for 15volcanoes within its area of responsibility and for 3volcanoes that produced ash that approached the area of responsibility for the W-VAAC. There were 2 volcanic eruptions during the reporting period that are considered to be of significance. Within the W-VAAC area, the State support to the IAVW also includes the Honolulu and Kansas City Meteorological Watch Offices (MWO) the Cascades, Hawaiian, Long Valley and Yellowstone Volcano Observatories (VO) and 20 Area Control Centers (ACC).

1.2This management report is a summary of how the VAAC interacts and works to fulfill its obligation to the IAWV Program

2.Introduction

2.1The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the MET Authority, has accepted by regional air navigation agreement the responsibility for establishing a VAAC within the framework of the ICAO IAVW as defined in Annex 3. At the request of the FAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Environmental and Satellite Data Information Service (NESDIS) agreed to establish a VAAC in WashingtonDC to become a providerState under the IAVW. The Washington VAAC supports 24 Meteorological Watch Offices (MWO) under its area of responsibility and numerous Area Control Centers (ACC).

2.2This management report presents information on the operations of the W-VAAC as operated by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and is a collaborative effort of both the National Centers of Environmental Prediction (NCEP) of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the Office of Satellite Data Processing and Distribution (OSDPD), of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). The W-VAACs area of responsibility stretches from 40degrees West to 130 degrees East and includes the areas of the United States Continental, New York and Oakland Oceanic Flight information Regions (FIR) and southward through Central America, the Caribbean to 10 degrees South in South America.

3.Operations of the Washington VAAC

3.1This section describes operations of the Washington VAAC in accordance with the IAWV on the issuance of volcanic ash advisories, identification of significant eruptions that influenced the performance of operations, changes in operational procedures or use of technology to enhance operational capability of the VAAC, and issues related to back-up operations.

a) Issuance of Volcanic Ash Advisories (VAA)

During the period from 1 Jan 2007 through 30June 2008, the W-VAAC produced 2679 VAA (Table 1) with 285 accompanying graphics. Advisories were issued for 15 volcanoes within the area of responsibility for the W-VAAC and for 3 volcanoes that produced ash that approached our entered our area ( Bezymianny and Kliuchevskoi – Tokyo VAAC, and Pavlof – Anchorage VAAC).

The majority of the VAA issued by the W-VAAC were for Tungurahura Volcano in Ecuador with 1585 VAA issued. Soufriere Hills volcano on the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean was a distant second with 324 VAA issued. In general, the eruptions from Tungurahua were short in duration and difficult to detect through remote sensing because of the cloud obscuration.

b) Significant Eruptions in VAAC Area

As there is no international standard definition for a significant eruption the W-VAAC uses its own internal procedures or judgment to classify when an eruption is considered significant. Levels of significance are attributed to differences in volcano type, summit elevation, eruption height, eruptive volume and air traffic density. This section will focus on eruptions that the W-VAAC determined that the ash associated with an eruption posed a significant threat to aviation safety.

The Tungurahua Volcano in Ecuador began to have a series of eruptions during the first 2 weeks of February 2008. The tops of the plumes were estimated between FL240 and FL320 and at one point due to windshear moved both southwest and west from the volcano.

Explosive events from the Kilauea Volcano(located on the Big Island of Hawaii) began to occur in mid-March of 2008 — these were the first explosive events from that particular volcano since 1927. Activity from Kilauea then continued for several weeks and typically showed a hazy signature of a long volcanic plume (composed primarily of steam, but possibly containing small amounts of ash) streaming southwestward from Hawaii. However, the northeasterly trade wind flow regime was interrupted by asurface trough of low pressure on 08 April 2008, and southerly to southeasterly winds began to advect the Kilauea plume to the north and northwest during the day. The volcanic plume at that time contained significantly elevated amounts of sulfur dioxide (SO2), which forced the closure of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park on 08 April. The volcanic SO2 plume on 08 April could be tracked moving slowly northwestward from the Big Island of Hawaii toward the smaller islands of Maui/Kahoolawe/Lanai/Molokai and impacted them with reduced visibility and some minor health issues. During many subsequent days and currently visible imagery shows two separate plumes, emanating from both the Halema`uma`u and Pu`u `O`o vents of the Kilauea volcano.

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Table 1

2007 / Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / Jun / Jul / Aug / Sep / Oct / Nov / Dec / Jan / Feb / Mar / Apr / May / Jun / 2008
Tungurahua / 26 / 133 / 116 / 89 / 23 / 85 / 70 / 65 / 121 / 118 / 128 / 131 / 114 / 70 / 110 / 115 / 59 / 1585
Soufriere Hills / 92 / 76 / 81 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 2 / 16 / 2 / 45 / 324
Kilauea / 30 / 124 / 39 / 193
Anatahan / 2 / 50 / 74 / 126
Sangay / 8 / 28 / 23 / 1 / 6 / 11 / 5 / 3 / 3 / 4 / 92
Santa Maria / 25 / 14 / 7 / 11 / 1 / 2 / 6 / 1 / 2 / 2 / 11 / 1 / 4 / 87
Fuego / 5 / 14 / 1 / 8 / 11 / 2 / 8 / 18 / 2 / 3 / 3 / 8 / 83
Reventador / 31 / 31 / 6 / 2 / 2 / 1 / 73
Popocatepetl / 4 / 1 / 3 / 2 / 5 / 2 / 2 / 9 / 8 / 4 / 4 / 44
Colima / 4 / 4 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 1 / 21
Huila / 4 / 3 / 3 / 3 / 1 / 14
Kliuchevskoi / 5 / 6 / 11
Masaya / 1 / 3 / 1 / 2 / 7
Telica / 1 / 4 / 5
Bezymianny / 5 / 5
Pacaya / 2 / 3 / 5
Galeras / 3 / 3
Pavlof / 1 / 1
Total / 135 / 153 / 293 / 175 / 108 / 38 / 117 / 89 / 75 / 136 / 155 / 163 / 148 / 173 / 184 / 261 / 201 / 63 / 2679

Table 1- Volcanic Ash Advisories issued by the Washington VAAC by volcano per month between Jan 2007 and June 2008.

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c) Significant operation or technical changes

1) Arrangements were made to access near real time GOES-10 imagery now under control of GEOSS in the Americas. This will allow our VAAC to view the southern portion of our area of responsibility during times of GOES –East(12) Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) which terminates imagery at 2 degrees south latitude. Having access to GOES-10 will allow us to view volcanoes and follow ash south of 2 degrees during these times of limited imagery viewing.

2) Since August 2007 the Volcanic Ash Graphic (VAG) has been available on our website in a KML (Keyhole Markup Language) format for those interested in the visualization of the data in two or three dimensional mapping systems such as Google Earth.

3) The VAAC now archives electronically all materials used (surface observation, volcano observatory report, some imagery, PIREPS etc.) in the creation of an advisory since mid 2007 for availability to researchers, aviation officials etc.

4) Since Mid October 2007 the VAG has been issued on our webpage in ICAO compliant format.

5) NOAA and NASA have been providing a website displaying the daily OMI SO2 levels from the joint NASA/USGS/NOAA and Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) effort. The imagery is located at:

NOAA:

NASA:

6) Continued assistance being provided to the Buenos Aries VAAC by the Air Resources Laboratory VAAC for running theirown version of the HYSPLYT model.

7) Continued collaboration with Dr. Milton Graces, Director of the Infrasound Lab at the U. of Hawaii – Kona on comparing readings they are receiving from a test bed infrasonic network in Ecuador.

d) VAAC back-up

1) Test of Back-up operations is preformed between Air Force Weather Agency (AFWA) quarterly with the W-VAAC, or more frequently as needed, to ensure pertinent AFWA personnel remain proficient. These tests are usually done over an 8-hour period to test that all resources required to provide this support are functioning and any problems identified during these procedures. During the period of this report AFWA took over W-VAAC operations in backup mode 4 times, most recently May 28, 2008.

2) AFWA also provided operational back-up to the Washington VAAC 5 times (usually brief) when operations were impacted by technical difficulties such as lack of incoming imagery and loss of communications.

3) The W-VAAC provided back-up Volcano model guidance support at the request of the Buenos Aires VAAC for the historic eruption of the Chilean Chaiten volcano in May 2008. Support was provided until the volcano’s name could be added to the ARL website so that they could run the model from there.

4) Some GOES 10 imagey assistance was provided to the Toulouse VAAC when ash from the Chaiten eruption moved east into their area of responsibility.

4.IAVW Implementation Issues

4.1Communication of information is a continuing problem. The issues of communication cut across a multitude of issues that involve: incorrect use of WMO headers, lack of observations, language barriers, etc. Both the World Area Forecast Center (WAFC) in Washington and the W-VAAC are not receiving special Air Reports for the most of the CAR/SAM Region. There have been incidents that WV SIGMETs have either not made it through the communications network or have been delayed by several hours.

5.Future Developments

5.1The VAAC hope to soon conduct a customer survey of our key product users such as other VAAC, volcano observatories, and Meteorological Watch Offices. This survey is a key part in our attempt to improve our user services.

6.ACTION BY THE IAVWOPSG

6.1The IAVWOPSG is invited to note the information in this paper.

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