UK Flight Restrictions Extended Till Tuesday (Volcanic Cloud May Reach US East Coast 1pm EST Today)

Source: Sky News

Restrictions on UK flights will remain in place until at least 1am tomorrow, air traffic control company Nats says.

Nats said the movement of the layers of the volcanic ash cloud over the UK "remained dynamic" and would provide an update at 3pm (GMT).

Germany and Italy have extended flight restrictions until 6pm - Italy this morning briefly reopened its airspace in the north only to shut it a short time later.

Denmark said it was opening its airspace above 35,500ft.

The ash cloud is expected to hit the east coast of the US at 6pm (GMT) and Canada this afternoon.

Read more: http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Volcano-Ash-Air-Crisis-Flights-Grounded-For-A-Fifth-Day-As-NATS-Heeds-Advice-From-Met-Office/Article/201004315608444?lpos=World_News_Carousel_Region_0&lid=ARTICLE_15608444_Volcano_Ash_Air_Crisis:_Flights_Gr

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The latest map from http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/vaacuk_vag.html">Britain's Met Office website.

April 19 (Bloomberg) -- The ash cloud from the Iceland volcanic eruption that grounded tens of thousands of flights in Europe last week may spread to Canada’s east coast today, according to the U.K. MET office.

The plume is approaching the coast of Newfoundland, and based on the forecast model that takes into account factors including wind flow, it may reach the North American east coast at about 1 p.m. in London, Bob Syvret, a forecaster at the U.K. Met Office, said in a telephone interview today.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=axf0ySwnx.DY&pos=9

edit to add : that's 1pm EST - not GMT.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m31wSrpHTc

maybe a good week to rent this with the kids with the lights out in the house <g>

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2010-04-19-1Avolcano19_CV_N.htm

It's a long article, but loaded with information from the experts.
:hi:

:thumbsup:

Here's hoping it's going to be the best case scenario. :hi:

Based on the general direction it has been traveling the cloud would hit western US before the eastern US.

weird.

May eventually get you from both directions. Its spreading east across Russia toward Japan and then presumably onward across the Pacific.

fingers x'd.

After 9/11, American airspace was shut down briefly. Thousands of flights were grounded. Subsequently, it was reported that the air quality in the US had measurably improved with the elimination of x amount of airplane exhaust, which includes greenhouse gases and other gunk.

In the last few days after the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, an ever-increasing number of European countries have closed their airspace to plane traffic. Again, thousands of flights have been grounded. If the section of volcanic cloud that reaches North America is of sufficient thickness and severity, similar measures will have to be considered here.

I'm thinking that the scientists probably have years of trustworthy data on how much airplane exhaust and other pollution can be found in a normal sample of air in, say, London, and they also have a good idea of just how much volcanic dust and greenhouse gases from Iceland should be present in London's air today, bearing in mind that volcanoes all over the world add gas and particulate to the atmosphere almost every day, and it's pretty well everywhere. Anyway, if normal air crud is "a" and Eyjafjallajökull stuff is "b", then the combined amount should be a+b.

But if the actual total of greenhouse gases, etc, turns out to be less than the a+b estimation, especially if it's significantly less -- very possible if the airplane groundings extend past a couple of weeks and to more countries -- I'd call that pretty compelling evidence that air travel does leave a significant carbon footprint, and we are altering our environment. We should even be able to measure fairly precisely how much of our usual air pollution is made up of plane exhaust, simply by noting its absence. The best-case scenario, I think, would be if the increase in greenhouse gases from the volcano were entirely offset by a decrease in greenhouse gases from plane exhaust.

I hope we get some figures on this by Earth Day.

I thought that there was evidence of a brief temperature increase after 9/11, because the flights that normally create so much exhaust and therefore "dim" sunlight had been grounded.

Was there any credence to that theory? If so, wouldn't it apply more widely now?

And every time we discover something new, our perception of the universe changes, as it should, and dearly beloved theories are emended or discarded. I look forward to the release of the new data and seeing what the boffins do with all that info.

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x271149

It's a fascinating BBC investigation that really shocked me when I first saw it.

European air traffic CO2 emissions: 350 000 tons per day
The Volcano: 15 000 tons per day

Or am I?

Only Eyjafjallajokull knows...

with regard to current bookings v. flights for those previously unable to fly and those stranded at present. I do know that when everything is up an running again the inevitable increased volume of passengers through LHR wherever will cause complete chaos at the security checkins.

Here's why ....

Technicals details: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanic_ash#Aviation

And here's the story of British Airways 9 that flew through volcanic ash from Mount Galunggung, in 1982.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_9
On 24 June 1982, the route was flown by the City of Edinburgh, a 747-236B. The aircraft flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung (circa 180 kilometres (110 mi) south-east of Jakarta, Indonesia), resulting in the failure of all four engines. The reason for the failure was not immediately apparent to the crew or ground control. The aircraft was diverted to Jakarta in the hope that enough engines could be restarted to allow it to land there. The aircraft was able to glide far enough to exit the ash cloud, and all engines were restarted (although one failed again soon after), allowing the aircraft to land safely.

Don't take any changes with this stuff.

I guess that's good news.

Wash a lot of the particulate matter out of the sky?

I know it won't stop the volcano, tho.

say this 3 times Eyjafjallajökull

I know in Los Angeles running to the Dr.'s office.... my eyes were so red and swollen - I was seeing bring lights flashing and I had to have a full eye examine.

I'm on more DRY EYE solution and still on another Medication.

My eyes seemed to get better when the Pollen Count got lower.

All this and I have been getting allergy shots, every week for 3 years that focus on "environmental" triggers.

Saying all that to say, if that is what Pollen is doing, what has all this ash done to so many people since the eruption and in the future?

that the volcano causes is much less air traffic, that is IMHO only positive effect. For the planet and people living as part of her. But Mother Earth knows best what is good for her.