Automated Generation of 3D Volcanic Gas Plume Models for Geobrowsers

A network of five UV spectrometers on Etna automatically gathers column amounts of SO2 during daylight hours. Near-simultaneous scans from adjacent spectrometers, comprising 210 column amounts in total, are then converted to 2D slices showing the spatial distribution of the gas by tomographic reconstruction. The trajectory of the plume is computed using an automatically-submitted query to NOAA's HYSPLIT Trajectory Model. This also provides local estimates of air temperature, which are used to determine the atmospheric stability and therefore the degree to which the plume is dispersed by turbulence. This information is sufficient to construct an animated sequence of models which show how the plume is advected and diffused over time. These models are automatically generated in the Collada Digital Asset Exchange format and combined into a single file which displays the evolution of the plume in Google Earth. These models are useful for visualising and predicting the shape and distribution of the plume for civil defence, to assist field campaigns and as a means of communicating some of the work of volcano observatories to the public. The Simultaneous Algebraic Reconstruction Technique is used to create the 2D slices. This is a well-known method, based on iteratively updating a forward model (from 2D distribution to column amounts). Because it is based on a forward model, it also provides a simple way to quantify errors.