Volcanic ash resources
are available worldwide and in many forms accessible to operators.
Volcano observatories are located throughout the world, including
the Alaska Volcano Observatory for information about North Pacific
volcanoes and the Nordic Volcanological Institute for information
about volcanic activity that could affect North Atlantic routes.
Many of these observatories provide immediate eruption and volcanic
ash updates to operators by fax, e-mail, telephone, or teletype.
Information is also available on the World Wide Web at the following
sites:
The Smithsonian
National Museum of Natural History Global Volcanism Program: http://www.volcano.si.edu/gvp/
The U.S. Geological
Survey: http://www.usgs.gov/themes/volcano.html
The Airline Dispatcher
Federation (a detailed paper about volcanic ash written by Leonard
J. Salinas of United Airlines, Chicago, Illinois): http://www.dispatcher.org/library/VolcanicAsh.htm
The Committee on
Earth Observation Satellites Disaster Management Support Project/Volcanic
Hazards Management (an effort by the U.S. National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration; information on tracking ash clouds):
http://disaster.ceos.org/newash.htm#volcanoes
The Istituto Internazionale
di Vulcanologia (a summary of volcanoes in Italy): http://www.iiv.ct.cnr.it/
The Nordic Volcanological
Institute (information about volcanoes in and around Iceland):
http://www.norvol.hi.is/index.html
The Volcanological
Society of Japan (eruption information, live images of Japanese
volcanoes, and other information):
http://hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/kazan/VSJ1E.html
Current Eruptions
in Japan (additional current information):
http://hakone.eri.u-tokyo.ac.jp/vrc/erup/erup.html
Other sources of
information include the following:
The Boeing Company,
Airliner magazine (“Vulcan’s Blast,” April-June 1990, and
“Vulcan Returns: Volcanic Ash Effects on Airplanes Revisited,”
October-December 1991) and video (“Volcanic Ash Avoidance: Flight
Crew Briefing”).
U.S. Federal Aviation
Administration, Aviation Safety Journal reprint (“The Volcano
Threat to Aviation Safety”).
Casadevall, T. J.,
ed. 1994. The First International Symposium on Volcanic Ash and
Aviation Safety: Proceedings Volume: U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin
2047.
Casadevall, T. J.,
T. B. Thompson, and T. Fox. 1999. World map of volcanoes and principal
air navigation features. U.S. Geological Survey Map I-2700.
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