Recent and future advances in remote sensing of volcanic ash clouds

The recent eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes have reaffirmed the importance of accurate quantification of a number of key parameters from remotely sensed data. Only through the synoptic perspective afforded satellite sensors can such variables, include cloud mass, concentration, height, and particle size be retrieved on the cloud scale. These parameters are vital to aircraft hazard mitigation as they have a profound impact on the severity of the effects on aircraft, on ash cloud transport and fallout, and can be used to drive dispersion models. This paper will detail recent work on (1) understanding how uncertainty in a priori assumptions impact observations, (2) detection limits for commonly used satellite sensors under a variety of environmental conditions, and (3) present first results from a Bayesian retrieval scheme.