Sulfur Dioxide emissions from Mauna Loa
One of the gases emitted from the Mauna Loa eruption is SO2. The 0223 UTC 30 November update from this site notes that emission rates of approximately 250,000 tonnes [sic] per day were measured on 28 November! What satellite products can be used to diagnose this gas qualitatively and quantitatively? There is an SO2 RGB created with GOES-R channels, so GOES-17 and GOES-18 are available to monitor SO2 qualitatively. The animation above shows both the SO2 and Ash RGBs over Hawaii, at half-hourly intervals. The light green regions around and downstream of Mauna Loa highlight parts of the lower troposphere that are rich in SO2. (Here is the SO2 RGB Quick Guide).
Longer animations using 5-minute images of GOES-17 Ash RGB and SO2 RGB imagery — from 1801 UTC on 29 November to 1501 UTC on 30 November — are shown below.
GOES-17 Ash RGB and SO2 RGB images, from 1801 UTC on 29 November to 1501 UTC on 30 November (credit: Scott Bachmeier, CIMSS) [click to play animated GIF | MP4]
Gridded NUCAPS fields available at this site from SPoRT include SO2 concentrations, as shown above. A minor increase in SO2 concentration is indicated. However, the Quality indicators suggest that the NUCAPS retrievals over part of Hawai’i failed.
NASA has a global SO2 monitoring site here that shows daily qualitative imagery from OMI (on board Aura), OMPS (on board Suomi-NPP) and Tropomi. OMI imagery is here, OMPS imagery is here, and TROPOMI imagery is here. (Note that the TROPOMI imagery is not processed as quickly as OMI and OMPS imagery). The OMPS images for 28 and 29 November, shown below, show values off the scale.
SO2 concentrations/distributions from OMI on Aura and OMPS on Suomi NPP are also available at NASA Worldview as shown below. OMPS imagery is available more quickly at NASA Worldview.
The toggle below compares OMI (Aura) and OMPS (NPP) estimates of SO2 concentration on 28 November. Aura and NPP have similar orbits so there is little time difference between the two observations. Both show values greater than 32 DU.
The JStar Mapper also shows SO2 concentration (from Suomi NPP OMPS) on top of Suomi NPP VIIRS True-Color imagery, as shown below.
