Ash Detectors

From the BBC:
"Volcanic ash detector network to be installed around UK"

 

A network of ash detectors is to be installed across the United Kingdom to help prevent volcanic ash cloud shutting down European airspace. An ash cloud from Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull led to airlines cancelling flights in 2010.  Aviation authorities and the Met Office were accused by some airlines and politicians of overestimating the threat to aircraft. At that time, aircraft could not fly if there was any ash in the atmosphere. All of this prompted an international effort to improve forecast capability and the aviation authorities to change their flight safety rules. The cost of closing the airspace cost airlines more than £1bn. "We've got three bands of ash - low, medium and high, which is defined by the amount of ash in the air - that defines where airlines can fly," said Jonathan Nicholson of the Civil Aviation Authority. "If the airline has arranged with us that they can fly in the low and medium bands, then they're free to make their own choices. So we should see much less disruption with the same amount of ash as we saw during the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud."  Working out whether an ash cloud is low, medium or high is where the new government-funded network comes in. It will be made up of 10 instruments called Light Detection and Ranging Systems, or Lidar.   The equipment uses lasers to work out how dense a layer of ash cloud is and that data can be used to work out if that cloud is safe to fly through. Aviation Minister Robert Goodwill said: "This new equipment will allow the UK's Met Office to track ash clouds more easily and predict how they might spread more accurately. The ground-based network will be used in conjunction with the world's only plane specifically kitted out to detect volcanic ash particles. The Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft, or MOCCA, has its own Lidar and so that data will be added to that collected from the ground network to help formulate the ash cloud forecasts. 

 

 

 

^ I'm not sure why it took 5 years to put this new tracking system into place. If it works  it sounds like it would help protect airplane travel in the future from any more ash. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-33497169