The Science Behind Operational Volcanic Cloud Forecasts for the Aviation Industry - Frances Beckett and Nina Kristiansen - Met Office

Today we welcome Frances Beckett and Nina Kristiansen from the Met Office, who will be giving an exiting talk on The Science Behind Operational Volcanic Cloud Forecasts for the Aviation Industry.

Frances is a Senior Scientist with a PhD in Physical Volcanology from the School of Earth Sciences and has earned honorary status. Her research focuses on the development and application of the Met Office Dispersion Model  (NAME) to forecast the transport of volcanic ash clouds. Nina has a PhD in Meteorology from the University of Oslo and is a Senior Scientist focusing on integrating satellite observations of volcanic ash and gas clouds with dispersion modelling.

 

Abstract:

The Met Office is the home of the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC)whose role is to provide guidance to the aviation industry on the presence of volcanic ash clouds in the atmosphere. Forecasts are generated using observations and the atmospheric transport and dispersion model NAME (Numerical Atmospheric-Dispersion Modelling Environment). In this talk we will show you how we use our modelling system and observations to generate forecasts. We will describe recent and ongoing research activities, and outline the future scientific development needed as we strive to generate optimalforecasts to support decision making.