Image of the Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption zone, acquired on October 22, 2011 by the Advanced Land Imager (ALI) aboard the Earth Observing-1 (EO-1) satellite.
A new Featured Article on the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC) discusses the Dust Score data provided by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on the Aqua satellite. The Dust Score indicates high levels of atmospheric aerosols in Earth's atmosphere.
AIRS observes volcanic ash and desert dust
NASA GES DISC scientist Dr. Andrey Savtchenko used AIRS Dust Score values and atmospheric wind data from the GEOS-5 model to examine the transport of ash from the ongoing Puyehue-Cordón Caulle volcanic eruption in Chile, which could mix with dust from the arid Atacama Desert north of the volcano. Prevailing winds take the volcanic ash predominantly eastward over Argentina, but may at times carry the volcanic ash plume to the north to mix with desert dust. Significant ash fall has impacted regions of Argentina and Chile east of the volcano, including heavy deposition on picturesque Andean lakes, as shown in the accompanying image.
AIRS data are archived at the NASA GES DISC and are available via the Mirador search engine. Mirador provides channel/variable/spatial subset, quality screening, and format conversion services. Mirador also helps navigate and use OPeNDAP catalogs of AIRS holdings. Subset options (by channel, variable, spatial) are available as well from the Simple Subset Wizard. Many AIRS data products are available for preview from Web-Map Servers (WMS) such as the Level-3 standard grid and Level-2 Near-Real Time data, as well as the NASA Giovanni data system.
