ash-cloud

Last month, European Union aviation officials hosted an ash-cloud exercise "to test new procedures" on the anniversary of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption.

Iceland Restricts Flights Amid Volcanic Eruption Daniel Michaels 2011

The airline was one of the least affected European airlines during the ash-cloud crisis as Spanish airspace stayed open and Madrid's airport, Iberia's base, turned into a hub for getting stranded passengers back to Europe.

Iberia's Net Loss Narrows 2010

That's a hefty 17% increase, and while airlines are quicker to cancel flights because of the tarmac-delay rule, airlines reported that blizzards, including two devastating storms in the Washington, D.C., area back in February, the ash-cloud mess that shut down European skies, a pilots' strike at Spirit Airlines, and maintenance problems early in the year at Delta Air Lines were the primary drivers of higher cancellations in 2010.

2010: A Year of Turbulence in Air Travel Scott McCartney 2010

With free-flight routing, where in-flight changes to an aircraft's route can be made by a pilot rather than air-traffic control, advisories about ash-cloud locations and trajectories will have to take into account greater variability in flight tracks likely to be affected.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

Data downloaded from these civilian meteorological satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are readily accessible for a variety of public uses and are widely used for ash-cloud detection by groups both within and outside NOAA.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

Combining these monitoring techniques and information sources, AVO typically is able to provide warnings hours to weeks in advance of likely eruptive activity to air-traffic controllers, aviation-weather groups, and the aviation industry so that flights can be routed to avoid ash-cloud encounters.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

The potential for a disastrous outcome of an ash-cloud encounter has been illustrated by three dramatic incidents (Miller and Casadevall, 2000).

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

Table-top exercises to practice responding to a hypothetical ash-cloud incident have proven helpful in improving information flow among diverse parties.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

The loss of the split-window capability on GOES satellites needs to be remedied, and the specific capability for ash-cloud detection should be designed into future sensors.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009

The recommended in-flight procedures in the event of an ash-cloud encounter are summarized in Table 2.

Reducing the threat to aviation from airborne volcanic ash 2009