Preliminary results of satellite and model blending
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Abstract
The objective satellite analysis techniques of Pavolonis et al. and ash probability maps generated from PUFF simulations were combined to produce a better estimate of the horizontal position of the Eyjafjallajokull ash cloud over Europe in regions with mid to high level meteorological cloud cover.
The techniques of Pavolonis et al. were used to objectively identify volcanic ash in regions where ash is the highest cloud layer and objectively identify mid to high level meteorological clouds (with no overlying ash) within a region of interest (described by a polygon). Probabilistic model results were then used to fill in gaps in satellite detection caused by meteorological cloud obstruction (only if the model probability exceeded 50%).
It is important to note that this technique will not work well unless the objective satellite analysis is of exceptional quality (of course the model data must also be reasonably accurate). Traditional BTD based satellite techniques simply are not good enough. Years of research (including recent work) were required to develop, robust, physically based, remote sensing techniques capable of being used in this type of analysis without manual massaging of the data (as is common in the literature).