Icelandic Volcanic Eruption - Significant Disruption to UK Flights

Jokester · 7 May 2010 at 19:03

I noticed a distinct layer of ash on my windscreen today.

Cosimo · 7 May 2010 at 19:21

Jokester said:
I noticed a distinct layer of ash on my windscreen today.

It didn't appear overnight did it?

Cosimo · 7 May 2010 at 19:23

A stunner fron NASA:

Eyjafjallajökull Volcano in Infrared

Image Credit: NASA/JPL/EO-1 Mission/GSFC/Ashley Davies

On Sat., April 17, 2010, the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) instrument aboard NASA's Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) spacecraft obtained this false-color infrared image of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano. A strong thermal source (denoted in red) is visible at the base of the Eyjafjallajökull plume. Above and to the right, strong thermal emission is also seen from the lava flows located at Fimmvorduhals between March 20 and April 13, 2010, where lava first reached the surface, generating impressive lava fountains and lava flows. As the Fimmvorduhals episode was in a location with no ice cap, there was little of the violent interaction between lava and water that took place at Eyjafjallajökull and that generated the massive volcanic plume. To the east of Fimmvorduhals is the Myrdalsjökull ice cap, beneath which slumbers the mighty Katla volcano. Katla has erupted 20 times in recorded history, with the last eruption occurring in 1918.

Robbo · 7 May 2010 at 19:34

I want to work for NASA

Jokester · 7 May 2010 at 19:49

simulatorman said:
It didn't appear overnight did it?

Why?

J1234 · 7 May 2010 at 21:24

It was probably dirt.

TheOtherOption · 7 May 2010 at 22:46

Well looking at the Hvolsvelli webcam there's one heck of a plume currently visible so it could well be ash

Jokester · 7 May 2010 at 22:50

I would say it's definitely ash, it was either that or sand you sometimes get blowing over from the Sahara but the wind is blasting it down from the North here the past few days.

NightSt@lk3r · 8 May 2010 at 00:38

Not much cloud tonight so great for lava bomb viewing

http://nightstalk3r.ath.cx/volcano/cams/Þórólfsfell.html

Cosimo · 8 May 2010 at 09:50

It continues:

Volcanic ash cloud shuts Spanish airports

Spain has closed nine airports as a cloud of ash from an Icelandic volcano drifts south over Western Europe.

National airport management agency Aena said six more airports would be closed from 1200 local time (1000 GMT).

Most flights between Europe and North America are being diverted because of the ash cloud's latest drifting, officials at Eurocontrol said.

Flights are being rerouted north and south of the 1,200 mile (2,000km) long cloud.

Source

The Ash Advisory:

anything-but · 8 May 2010 at 12:45

Blimey,just looked at the webcam after waking in though the door and WOW is it chucking it out today!

dannyjo22 · 8 May 2010 at 12:50

Had a problem with volcanic gash on one of our aircraft last night. The media whore Jordan was on one of our flights and no one was allowed to approach the aircraft until the **** had got off and been ferried by her own bus the 50 feet walk to the terminal building.

Morgoth · 8 May 2010 at 13:04

dannyjo22 said:
volcanic gash

At first I thought you made an amusing error.

dannyjo22 said:
Jordan

Then it became clear.

nc11 · 8 May 2010 at 13:19

due tomorrow 1500 to Toronto... any chance the flight will be canceled?

from what I could gather current flights to the US take around 2 hrs longer as they need to re-route towards Spain.

Jokester · 8 May 2010 at 13:24

Looking at the ash map, there might be a chance that some of airports being shut in Scotland but everyelse should be fine I suspect.

Amp34 · 8 May 2010 at 13:36

Seems my parents are going to have issues getting to their place in Spain this weekend... Oops..

Cosimo · 8 May 2010 at 18:52

SPAIN -Update from AENA:

16 Aena's airports are still closed due to the volcanic ash: Barcelona, Girona, Sabadell, Santiago, A Coruña, Vigo, Asturias, Santander, Burgos, León, Bilbao, San Sebastián, Vitoria, Huesca, Pamplona and Logroño. At 20.00 hours, the air traffic restrictions will be lifted in Zaragoza, Valladolid and Salamanca airports.

According to the latest information from Eurocontrol, the volcanic ash cloud evolution could allow the Barcelona airport reopening at 2.00 hours on Sunday.

Aena suggests passengers flying in the next hours to contact their airline before going to the airport. to fly in the next few hours, before turning the airport, contact your airline.

Also, you can get more information calling the Aena’s telephone support numbers:

902 404 704
(+34) 91 321 10 00

Source

Latest Ash Advisory:

Vampire · 8 May 2010 at 18:56

I'm not sure when they added it as I haven't been looking daily, but the webcam page now seems to have an infra-red camera set up too.

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

PhillyDee · 8 May 2010 at 20:02

Whats the difference between the red and green dashed lines?

Cybermyk · 8 May 2010 at 20:11

PhillyDee said:
Whats the difference between the red and green dashed lines?

Flight level, it is shown on the map. FL200 is 20,000 feet.