Icelandic eruption and the weather

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Thought it might be interesting to start a thread on this.
eruption in iceland

It seems to be a fissure eruption and after some reading this afternoon I think it is unlikely at the moment to be putting up large quantities of ash into the atmosphere, this sort of eruption does not seem to be the explosive sort. If it starts to, then we could see some particularly spectacular sunsets.

Worries are though that it might trigger Katla volcano which could be potentially pretty devestating, not only to Iceland but also could affect weather on a global scale. Large eruptions have historically caused global cooling and influenced weather patterns.

hopefully fears end up being unfounded

This thread is certainly poptastic

popocatepetl

ashcast looks like someone has randomly drwan a squiggle on it!

has been some flights but glasgow just closed again.
Think I just heard some flights on route to heathrow???? sounds odd as airspace around heathrow is closed. will just go and check facts.....

must have misheard!!
apparently planes can fly above 20.000 ft above us. So they can tease us I expect....

A BA flight left from Beijing - hoping to land at Heathrow, but with the back-up plan of landing at another (open ) british airport and failing that at one of the open airports on the continent.

East coast airpors are still open, so it might be able to land within Britain after all!

aha - thank you prettybird

interesting link about volcano - nice little diagram included and reassurance about katla

latest restrictions and open airports

Katla is "usually" about a year after Eyjafjallajökull, so you wouldn't necessarily see anything just yet.

What I have read suggests (and I am not an expert! ) that it is once Eyjafjallajökull stops erupting that the pressure then builds up in Katla, leading to her erupting.

However: Eyjafjallajökull has only erupted three times in recorded history (920, 1612 and 1821-23 - wich was actually only ust over a year long but it started at the end of 1821 and stopped at the beginning of 1823), so there isn't exactly a lot of precedent to go on.

I was attemting to be reassuring

The Icelanders are most upset about their president going on about Katla last night on Newsnight. That's their tourist industry stuffed for the rest of the year!

you do have to feel somewhat sorry for them really. not been their year (or two)

Blimey just read that BA intend to land their 12 planes at Heathrow despite the airspace being closed.

(just going to try and check if its an internet rumour)

Sky news is saying that they hope to get special permission to land......First due round 7pm Uk time .....

unsure yet.

technical paper about engine damage under very similar circs.

Watch bbc news!! reports of stand off between ba & atc!

good grief.

They can't do this with passengers onboard. utterly bloody unbelievable.

I've just seen a similar report on Channel 4 news. That's just crazy. Technically (and legally) it's the designated Captain who has responsibility for the aircraft, and if a Captain insists on landing there's not a lot the air traffic people can do about that except to assist.

pprune has only just picked this up:

"Looks like BA flights are circling"

"A BA source is now saying that they are not engaged in a act of defience and the 26 flights will not be landing in the UK tonight."

"BAW142 DEL-LHR B777-236 DIV BRU arr imminent. BAW038 BJS-LHR B772 (as if we didn't know) made a 180-degree turn 45 NM west of Den Haag, turning back towards AMS steady at FL300. It's gonna be a long night for some."

The trouble is that if those planes force their way down to Heathrow, they would quite probably land safely. But that's not the real issue. If they fly through the ash cloud there will have been damage but even the manufacturers and engineers can't predict how much damage and what the knock-on effect could be.

exactly, well put ugly. That paper I linked to shows exactly the problems associated with flying through diffuse ash clouds and the difficulty in detecting damage without a detailed inspection.

link to pprune for others

According to bbc just now ba say 26 flights heading for uk, some being diverted. "however they are hopeful that other flights will land at heathrow or gatwick this evening"

This is not fair to relatives or the people on those planes.

another discussion about it on flyertalk

How must those people feel!