A theoretical model of a volcanic plume, based on applying the equations of motion in a plume-centered coordinate system, suggests that the interaction between a volcanic plume and wind causes enhanced entrainment of air and horizontal momentum, plume bending, and a decrease in plume rise height at constant eruption rate. Because of rapid dilution in the high windspeeds of the polar jet, plumes that vary over more than one order of magnitude in mass eruption rate (10^6^ to 10^8^ kg/s), if injected into the polar jet, may all attain rise heights only slightly different from that of the core of the jet, ~10 km, as opposed to 17 - 33 km in a still atmosphere. The model outputs plume trajectories and rise heights, as well as pyroclast loadings as a function of height, and can therefore be used to produce input for advection-diffusion and volcanic ash transport models such as tephra2 or puff.

Researchers should cite this work as follows:

• Geophysical Research Letters, 28(18), 3621-3624, 2001. Effect of Wind on the Rise Height of Volcanic Plumes. M. Bursik

• Marcus I Bursik (2013), "Bent - Atmospheric Plume Analysis," https://theghub.org/resources/bent.

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