Accurate measurement of volcanic SO2flux: Determination of plume transport speed and integrated SO2concentration with a single device

2005

[1] Ground-based measurements of volcanic sulfur dioxide fluxes are important indicators of volcanic activity, with application in hazard assessment, and understanding the impacts of volcanic emissions upon the environment and climate. These data are obtained by making traverses underneath the volcanic plume a few kilometers from source with an ultraviolet spectrometer, measuring integrated SO2 concentrations across the plume's cross section, and multiplying by the plume's transport speed. However, plume velocities are usually derived from ground-based anemometers, located many kilometers from the traverse route and hundreds of meters below plume altitude, complicating the experimental desi…