Abstract

The SO2 and aerosol clouds emitted by Mt. Etna in late October 2002 have been observed using AIRS on the EOS-AQUA satellite. The SO2 cloud is very localized from Mt. Etna across the Mediterranean well into Libya for some days. Estimates of column content of SO2 in these SO2 plumes are made. The aerosol clouds from Mt. Etna follow the SO2 cloud but become more dispersed over time. Aerosol particle sizes and column densities are retrieved from AIRS observations in the window regions using a multiple scattering radiative transfer code that works at AIRS spectral resolution. This model, which assumes that the aerosol plume is composed of andesite, fits the data quite well.

© 2003 Optical Society of America