Modeling volcanic ash aggregation processes and  related impacts on the April–May 2010 eruptions  of Eyjafjallajökull volcano with WRF-Chem

Egan, Sean D.; Stuefer, Martin; Webley, Peter W.; Lopez, Taryn; Cahill, Catherine F.; Hirtl, Marcus

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2721-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2721-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Analysis and prediction of natural airborne aviation hazards

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-20-2721-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 10

Research article

|

17 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 17 Oct 2020

Modeling volcanic ash aggregation processes and related impacts on the April–May 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull volcano with WRF-Chem

Sean D. Egan, Martin Stuefer, Peter W. Webley, Taryn Lopez, Catherine F. Cahill, and Marcus Hirtl

Model code and software

First Release WRF-Chem Aggregation Code (Version v1.0.0) S. D. Egan https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3540446

Short summary

The Weather Research Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model was modified to include volcanic ash aggregation. The modified WRF-Chem model was run with and without aggregation, and changes in the model output were measured. Changes in the lifetime of volcanic ash a function of the chosen fractal dimension were quantified. A case study using the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull revealed that the aggregation modifications result in tephra fallout and ash concentrations near observed values.