Virtual Globe visualization of ash–aviation encounters, with the special case of the 1989 Redoubt–KLM incident

The impact of natural hazards on the local environment causes major issues for those agencies responsible for warning and understanding of the risks. Analysis of past events can assist and improve future warning capabilities. Here, volcanic ash–aviation encounters are the focus, with an improved visualization allowing observers a prospective view of a high impact event in four dimensions, never before possible without high-performance computing. Volcanic ash is one of the major hazards from volcanic eruptions; with impacts include aircraft engine failure, building collapses, airport closures and associated health impacts. Across the North Pacific since 1970, there have been over 200 separate volcanic ash clouds that have reached aviation routes at 6 km above sea level or higher. Dispersion models are used to forecast the movement of ash clouds from impending and current volcanic events. Virtual Globes, with their three- and even four-dimensionality, provide the perfect tools to display these model predictions in their true form. Here, the Puff dispersion model is shown in four dimensions, in space and time. There have been many ash–aviation encounters worldwide, 8 with engine failures that are considered high severity encounters but fortunately so far, no crashes. Here, the encounter from Redoubt Volcano during the 1989–1990 eruptive period is shown, known as the Redoubt–KLM incident. This new visualization allows an improved understanding of the event, allowing the observer to interact with the encounter at a spatio–temporal scale never before possible. Through the volcanic ash–aviation event here, the next step in displaying multiple geophysical datasets in one seamless environment is possible. For volcanic activity, seismic, infrasound, lightning, dispersion modeling, and remote sensing datasets can be easily displayed with the additional ability of viewing all of them together in four dimensions.