Support to Aviation Control Service: Monitoring of Volcanic SO2 and Ash Emissions by a Multi-Sensor Satellite System
Brenot, Hugues1; Theys, Nicolas1; van Gent, Jeroen1; Van Roozendael, Michel1; Clarisse, Lieven2; Hurtmans, Daniel2; Coheur, Pierre-Francois2; Clerbaux, Cathy3; van der A, Ronald4; Prata, Fred5; Zehner, Claus6
1BIRA, BELGIUM; 2ULB, BELGIUM; 3ULB/LATMOS, BELGIUM; 4KNMI, NETHERLANDS; 5NILU, NORWAY; 6ESA/ESRIN, ITALY

The "Support to Aviation Control Service" (SACS; http://sacs.aeronomie.be) is an ESA-funded project hosted by the Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy. The service provides near real-time (NRT) global SO2 and volcanic ash data, as well as warnings in case of volcanic eruptions. The SACS service is primarily designed to support the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs) in their mandate to gather information on volcanic clouds and give advice to airline and air traffic control organisations. SACS also serves other users that subscribe to the service, in particular local volcano observatories and research scientists. SACS is based on the combined use of UV-visible (OMI, GOME-2) and thermal infrared (AIRS, IASI) satellite instruments. When a volcanic eruption is detected, SACS issues a warning that takes the form of a notification sent by e-mail to users. This notification points to a dedicated web page where all relevant information is available and can be visualised with user-friendly tools. The strength of a multi-sensor approach relies in the use of satellite data with different overpasses times, minimising the time-lag for detection and enhancing the reliability of such warnings.