Will the AWR detect Ash from Volcanoes?
 

Was talking in the pub the other day....like you do enjoying a nice pint of Black Sheep Ale and we started talking about volcanoes and AWR's

My question:

Will the AWR detect an ash cloud from a volcanoe?


Many thanks for the replies in advance,

Jinkster

The answer is no.

Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres

There are nine centres around the world that are responsible for advising international aviation of the location and movement of clouds of volcanic ash.

London
Toulouse
Anchorage
Washington
Montreal
Darwin
Wellington
Tokyo
Buenos Aires

The VAAC's are part of an international system set up by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) called the International Airways Volcano Watch (IAVW).

The IAVW was set up in the early 1980s in response to a number of serious incidents in which jet transport aircraft had encountered volcanic ash in flight and lost power on one or more engines. In June 1982, for example, a British Airways Boeing 747 lost all four engines and suffered severe damage on encountering volcanic ash over Indonesia. The aircraft descended to 12,000 feet before being able to restart some engines and make an emergency landing in Jakarta.

The IAVW comprises observations of volcanic ash from volcano observatories and other organisations, satellites and visual observations from aircraft in flight, the issuance of warnings in the form of NOTAM and SIGMET messages, and since the mid 1990's, the issuance of volcanic ash advisory messages from the VAAC's identifying areas of volcanic ash and their predicted movement

Weather radar only detects water - it doesn't even detect ice. So a mile high geyser - yes, possibly; volcanic ash - no.

Weather radar also detects rock in the form of cumulo granitus. I suspect that the dust particles in a volcanic cloud would be too small to paint on a 3cm radar.

Weather radar wavelength is optimised to detect water droplets. Hence, detection of ice particles, volcanic dust etc. is very weak.

A day to day practical example of this is cruising at high levels but below Cumulo Nimbus tops, looking straight ahead at the Cb shows negligible return (ice crystals only), but tilt down of the radar to 'see' the water droplets is necessary to detect the presence of the Cb.