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Volcanic Emissions, Plume Dispersion and Downwind Radiative Impacts following Mount Etna Series of Eruptions of 21-26 February 2021
  • +16
  • Pasquale Sellitto,
  • Giuseppe Salerno,
  • Stefano Corradini,
  • Irene Xueref-Remy,
  • Aurélie Riandet,
  • Clémence Bellon,
  • Sergey M. Khaykin,
  • Gerard Ancellet,
  • Simone Lolli,
  • Ellsworth J Welton,
  • Antonella Boselli,
  • Alessia Sannino,
  • Juan Cuesta,
  • Henda Guermazi,
  • Maxim Eremenko,
  • Luca Merucci,
  • dario stelitano,
  • Lorenzo Guerrieri,
  • Bernard Legras
Pasquale Sellitto
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques, Université Paris-Est Créteil

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Giuseppe Salerno
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia
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Stefano Corradini
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
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Irene Xueref-Remy
Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale
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Aurélie Riandet
Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale
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Clémence Bellon
Institut Méditerranéen de Biodiversité et d'Ecologie marine et continentale
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Sergey M. Khaykin
CNRS-LATMOS
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Gerard Ancellet
Université Pierre et Marie Curie
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Simone Lolli
CNR
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Ellsworth J Welton
Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center
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Antonella Boselli
CNISM and IMAA-CNR
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Alessia Sannino
8Dipartimento di Fisica "Ettore Pancini", Università Federico II di Napoli
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Juan Cuesta
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systèmes Atmosphériques (LISA) CNRS UMR 7583
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Henda Guermazi
LISA
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Maxim Eremenko
Laboratoire Interuniversitaire des Systemes Atmospheriques
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Luca Merucci
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
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dario stelitano
Unknown
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Lorenzo Guerrieri
INGV
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Bernard Legras
Ecole Normale Superieure
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Abstract

During the extended activity of Mount Etna volcano in February-April 2021, three distinct paroxysmal events took place from 21 to 26 February, which were associated with a very uncommon transport of the injected upper-tropospheric plumes towards the north. Using a synergy of observations and modelling, we characterised the emissions and three-dimensional dispersion for these three plumes, we monitor their downwind morphological and optical properties, and we estimate their radiative impacts at selected locations. With a satellite-based source inversion, we estimate the emitted sulphur dioxide (SO2) mass at an integrated value of 55 kt and plumes injections at up to 12 km altitudes, which combine to qualify this series as extreme in the eruption strengths spectrum for Mount Etna. We then combine Lagrangian dispersion modelling, initialised with measured temporally-resolved SO2 emission fluxes and altitudes, with satellite observations to track the dispersion of the three individual plumes. The transport towards the north allowed the height-resolved downwind monitoring of the plumes at selected observatories in France, Italy and Israel, using LiDARs and photometric aerosol observations. Volcanic-specific aerosol optical depths in the visible spectral range ranging from about 0.004 to 0.03 and local daily average shortwave radiative forcing ranging from about -0.2 to -1.2 W/m2 (at the top of atmosphere) and from about -0.2 to -3.5 W/m2 (at the surface) are found. Both the aerosol optical depth and the radiative forcing of the plume depends strongly on its morphology (position of the sampled section of the plume) and composition (possible presence of fine ash).