New Volcano Plume - New Partial Flight Ban


A significant ash plume from Iceland is headed to U.K. airspace.

Precautionary flight bans affect Irish Republic, Northern Ireland and Scotland's Outer Hebrides.

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) has informed Irish-based airlines that it will be imposing restriction on all flights in and out of Ireland from 0700hrs local until 1300hrs tomorrow, Tuesday, 4th May 2010 due to risk of ash ingestion in aircraft engines. Ireland falls within the predicted area of ash concentrations that exceed acceptable engine manufacturer tolerance levels.

http://www.iaa.ie/index.jsp?p=93&n=96&a=884

The plume is much smaller than the recent one which grounded all flights in the region.  It appears to be associated with an abnormal meltwater pulse.

Today water temperature at the Markarfljot bridge was measured 11°C but about 3°C in a 2 km distance from Gígjökull. Water is flowing on both sides of the glacier and pulses of meltwater flow down the channels every 10 minutes or so. Water level gauge at Gígjökull also records the pulses. Temperature measurements at Markarfljot bridge show a pulse of water temperature up to 17°C at 06:00 GMT this morning. Water temperature has now dropped down below 4°C.

No measurable geophysical changes within the Katla volcano.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1884

This is the most recent MODIS/terra image not obscured by cloud:

cropped detail from MODIS/Terra 2010/123 05/03/10 13:00 UTC

Related articles:
Volcano In Iceland Grounds UK Flights
Eyjafjallajökull, Gígjökull, Jökulhlaup, Gosmökkur
Eyjafjallajökull - Thats Easy For You To Say !

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Various research publications are available from the Icelandic Met Office: http://en.vedur.is/

listed below for convenience.