INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS VOLCANO WATCH OPERATIONS GROUP (IAVWOPSG)

Transcription

1 International Civil Aviation Organization IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29 4/8/11 WORKING PAPER INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS VOLCANO WATCH OPERATIONS GROUP (IAVWOPSG) SIXTH MEETING Dakar, Senegal, 19 to 23 September 2011 Agenda Item 5: Operation of the IAVW 5.1: Implementation of the IAVW, including the IAVW management reports TOKYO VAAC MANAGEMENT REPORT (Presented by Japan) SUMMARY Pursuant to Conclusion 1/2 of the IAVWOPSG/1 Meeting, VAAC Provider States were invited to provide a concise IAVW management report to be presented at every IAVWOPSG meeting covering the period elapsed since the previous meeting and addressing the main features of the IAVW operations, highlighting any recent developments and difficulties and future planned developments. The report prepared by Japan is attached for the group s review and consideration. 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1.1 In this period, 20 months from November 2009 to June 2011, Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) Tokyo issued 2822 Volcanic Ash Advisories (VAAs) to Meteorological Watch Offices (MWOs) in the VAAC Tokyo area of responsibility and other relevant organizations. In spite of some significant volcanic activities in volcanoes in Kamchatka, serious aircraft accident due to volcanic ash was not reported in this period. 1.2 Due to the increase of issuance of VAAs regarding recent high volcanic activity in Kamchatka and Japan region, 7 persons have been newly assigned to VAAC Tokyo, including 5 staff members who are exclusively in charge of issuing VAAs as well as collecting volcanic ash information through relevant volcanological observatories and satellites. (6 pages) IAVWOPSG.6.WP.029.en.doc

2 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ INTRODUCTION 2.1 VAAC Tokyo is operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) which is responsible for observing and issuing information on meteorological, climatological and geophysical phenomena as national services. VAAC Tokyo is located at the headquarters building of JMA in Tokyo. 2.2 Operation of VAAC Tokyo is conducted as a part of monitoring team for geophysical phenomena (earthquake, tsunami and volcanic activity). Each monitoring team consists of 8 staff members and 5 teams are on duty on the day/night rotation basis. After reinforcement of VAAC Tokyo, one exclusive staff member in every team is responsible for VAAC operation. Other staff members in the same team help monitoring work in necessary. 2.3 JMA is responsible for monitoring 110 active volcanoes in Japan and issuing information on these volcanoes. Therefore, VAAC Tokyo has a great advantage for quick issuance of VAA for volcanoes in Japan by utilizing such information. In addition, thanks to close cooperation between volcano observatories in Russia and Philippine, VAAC Tokyo can issue early VAA for volcanoes in these regions. 2.4 Multi-functional Transport Satellite (MTSAT) series provide VAAC Tokyo with 5 channels of images (IR1, IR2, WV, NIR and VIS) almost every 30 minutes. After volcanic ash clouds are identified in satellite images, VAAC Tokyo continues tracing them, forecasting future position of them and issuing VAA every 6 hours until the volcanic ash clouds become unidentifiable in satellite images. 3. OPERATION OF VAAC TOKYO 3.1 Issuance of VAAs VAAC Tokyo issued 2827 VAAs for 16 volcanoes in the area of its responsibility. Most frequent issuance of VAAs in this period was in February 2011 (232 times) while least frequent month was December 2010 (84 times). On average, VAAC Tokyo issued 141 VAAs per one month (4.66 VAAs per one day) in this period Among 2827 issued VAAs, 1893 (67 per cent) were for 4 volcanoes in Kyushu island (Sakurajima, Suwanosejima, Kirishima and Asosan), while 874 (31 per cent) were for 6 volcanoes in Kamchatka peninsula (Sheveluch, Kliuchevskoi, Kizimen, Karymsky, Bezymianny and Mary- Semyachik). Table 1 shows number of VAAs for each volcano in each month in this period. Figure 1 shows total number of VAA for each volcano in this period In addition to the VAAs for volcanoes in the area of responsibility, VAAC Tokyo has transferred VAAs for volcanoes out of its area when volcanic ash clouds from such volcanoes approach its area. 18 VAAs for 5 volcanoes were transferred in this period.

3 - 3 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29 Volcano N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J Total Sakurajima Suwanosejima Kirishimayama Asosan Miyakejima Ioto 1 1 Sheveluch Kliuchevskoi Kizimen Karymsky Bezymianny Mary-Semyachik 1 1 Ebeko 1 1 Bulusan Mayon Canlaon 1 1 Total Table 1. Monthly number of VAA issued by VAAC Tokyo for each volcano from Nov 2009 to Jun 2011 Figure 1. Total number of VAAs issued for each volcano in this period from Nov 2009 to Jun 2011

4 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ Volcanoes for which VAAs were issued in this period Sakurajima (Kyushu island, 1445 VAAs) : Continuous eruptive activity since 2009 has been still on-going. More than half of VAAs issued by VAAC Tokyo were for this volcano. Maximum height of ash plume in this period was feet (on May 2010). Most of the ash plumes were not identifiable in satellite imagery Suwanosejima (Kyushu island, 239 VAAs) : Activity of Suwanosejima in this period was relatively lower than that in previous period. Maximum number of VAA was recorded in January 2011 (46 times). In other months except June 2010, at least one VAA was issued for this volcano Kirishimayama (Kyushu island, 153 VAAs) : Small eruptive activity was observed from May to July in On 18 January 2011, moderate eruptive activity started and it is still on-going. In February 2011, 77 VAAs were issued for the volcano. Ash deposits temporarily closed Miyazaki Airport Asosan (Kyushu island, 56 VAAs) : On 15 May 2011, small eruption was observed and a VAA was issued for this eruption. It was the first VAA for Asosan since VAAC Tokyo started its operation Miyakejima (Izu islands, 4 VAAs) : In April and July 2010, totally 4 VAAs were issued for minor eruptions Ioto (Ogasawara islands, 1 VAA) : On 19 June 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report Sheveluch (Kamchatka peninsula, 293 VAAs) : Continuous activity has been observed since More than one VAA were issued every month in this period. Maximum issuance of VAA for Sheveluch was November 2010 (54 times). On 28 October 2010, large eruption occurred with ash plume up to 29,000 feet was observed and an area of about 160,000 km 2 was covered with ash clouds, according to the observation of MTSAT Kliuchevskoi (Kamchatka peninsula, 258 VAAs) : It has been relatively more active compared with the previous period. Most of the VAAs for Kliuchevskoi were issued in the latter part of 2010 (July to December : 200 times). On 12 September 2010, a large eruption occurred, followed by ash clouds with a height of 32,000 feet covering about 200,000 km 2. Another large eruption was occurred on 21 October 2010, emitting multiple ash clouds. Their heights were estimated up to 30,000 feet Kizimen (Kamchatka peninsula, 220 VAAs) : This volcano had been considered to be dormant since However, on 17 November 2010, a pilot report regarding the volcano was reported, followed by the first VAA for the volcano. On 9 December 2010, another eruption was reported and ash plume with a height of 33,000 feet was observed from MTSAT-2. In the first three months (January to March 2011, 167 VAAs were issued for this newly activated volcano Karymsky (Kamchatka peninsula, 82 VAAs) : In this period, number of VAAs for this volcano was relatively small compared with Sheveluch, Kliuchevskoi and Kizimen. Maximum height plume of the volcano was observed on 11 June Bezynianny (Kamchatka peninsula, 20 VAAs) : This volcano turns to be active intermittingly. On 31 May 2010, large eruption with ash plume of about 45,000 feet was observed. Ash clouds covered an area of about 240,000 km 2.

5 - 5 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ Maly-Semyachik (Kamchatka peninsula, 1 VAA) : On 29 December 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report Ebeko (Kuril islands, 1 VAA) : On 2 July 2010, one VAA was issued upon an observation report Bulusan (Philippines, 43 VAAs) : From November 2010, moderate eruptions have been reported intermittingly, and VAAs have been issued. Ash plumes from the volcano were not observed Mayon (Philippines, 10 VAAs) : On 10 November 2009, ash plume of about 12,000 feet was observed and 3 VAAs were issued. In December 2009, other 7 VAAs were issued for Mayon. However, no eruption or ash plume was observed since Canlaon (Philippines, 1 VAA) : On 15 May 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report In addition to VAAs for these volcanoes in the area of responsibility, VAAC Tokyo transferred VAAs issued by other VAACs when ash clouds approached to Tokyo area. (9 VAAs for Eyjafjallajökull, 5 VAAs for Grímsvötn, 2 VAAs for Pagan, 1 VAA for Anatahan and Karangetang). 3.3 Significant operations and technical changes Despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami occurred on 11 March 2011 in Tohoku region of Japan, VAAC Tokyo has successfully continued its work Volcanic activity reports from the Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT), the Kamchatkan Experimental & Methodical Seismological Department (KEMSD) and the Sakhalin Volcanic Eruption Response Team (SVERT) have made great continuous contributions to the timely issuance of VAAs by VAAC Tokyo, especially when satellite images could not identify smallscale eruptions Regarding continuous activity of Mayon volcano, VAAC Tokyo contacted the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) and ensured timely information sharing. 3.4 VAAC back-up operation VAAC Tokyo has a duplicated system for issuance of VAAs in case of any trouble or maintenance In addition, as described in the Appendix D of the IAVW handbook (Doc 9766), VAAC Tokyo is establishing mutual back-up operation procedures with VAAC Darwin No back-up operation or test was carried out during this period. 4. IAVW IMPLEMENTATION ISSUE 4.1 Upon recent significant volcanic events and increase of issuance of VAAs, VAAC Tokyo has employed 7 additional staff members since April Among them, 5 members are dispatched as exclusive operational staff and other 2 members are engaged to management work.

6 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ As pointed out by IATA at the 4 th meeting of IAVWOPSG, altitude layers for forecast areas in VAAs issued by VAAC Tokyo had been fixed to SFC/FL200, FL200/350. FL350/500. Since June 2011, the forecast layers have been consistent with the maximum height of the ash columns. 5. FUTURE DEVELOPMENT 5.1 Considering recent large-scale eruption events followed by wide dispersion of ash clouds, VAAC Tokyo is implementing global dispersion model in its system. 5.2 VAAC Tokyo is implementing aviation colour code in coordination with volcanic alert levels issued for domestic volcano by JMA and volcanic activity reports from relevant volcanic observatories abroad. 6. ACTION BY THE IAVWOPSG 6.1 The group is invited to note the information in this paper. END