Diffusion Source Detection of Volcanic Ash Cloud Using MODIS Satellite Data

The massive volcanic ash cloud not only causes obvious global climate and environmental changes, but also threatens aviation safety under the background of globalization. The diffusion source detection is a key factor in the volcanic ash cloud monitoring and the diffusion research. Taking the Eyjafjallajokull’s volcanic ash cloud on April 19, 2010 in Iceland as an example, based on the analysis of the absorption spectrum characteristics in the thermal infrared spectral range, in this paper, a new diffusion source detection algorithm of volcanic ash cloud combining split window algorithm with SO₂ concentration distribution is proposed from the moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite remote sensing images; subsequently the ash radiance index (ARI) and absorbing aerosol index (AAI) are applied as contrast to the detection results. The results show that the proposed algorithm can effectively detect the diffusion source of volcanic ash cloud, and has high consistency with the ARI and AAI distributions, and has certain potential applications in improving the detection effect of volcanic ash cloud and prediction accuracy of diffusion model.