WORKING PAPER IAVW. International SIXTH MEETING ANCHORAGE. States) SUMMARY. issues and through June 30, the VAAs. were issued 9/8/11.

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1 International Civil Aviation Organization IAVWOPSG/6-WP/38 9/8/11 WORKING PAPER INTERNATIONAL AIRWAYS VOLCANO WATCH OPERATIONS GROUP (IAVWOPSG) SIXTH MEETING Dakar, Senegal, 19 to 23 September Agenda Item 5: Operation of the IAVW 5.1 Implementation of the IAVW, including the IAVW management reports1 ANCHORAGE VAAC MANAGEMENT REPORT (DECEMBER 2009 JUNE 2011) (Presented by the United States) SUMMARY This paper serves as Anchorage Volcanic Ash Advisory Center Management Report for the period December 2009 June EXECUTIVEE SUMMARY 1.1 This report is provided in response to the IAVWOPSG Conclusion 1/2 where it was agreed that each Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) operating under the IAVW Program provide a management report to the Secretary of the IAVWOPSG thatt describes the operations of the VAAC, implementation issues and future developmental work. This report covers the operations of the Anchorage VAAC for the period December 2009 through June 30, During this period, the Anchorage VAAC issued 107 Volcanic Ash Advisoriess (VAAs). Most of the VAAs were issued for the Kizimen eruptions in The majority of these eruptions had a low to moderate impact on the air traffic on the North Pacific (NOPAC) routes and the Anchorage Flight Information Region (FIR). 2. INTRODUCTION 2.1 The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) which is the United States Meteorological Authority has accepted by regional air navigation agreement the responsibility for establishing a VAAC within the framework of the IAVW as definedd in Annex 3. At the request of the FAA, the National Weather Service (NWS), as the principal provider of meteorological services for the FAA, established two VAACs (one in Anchorage and the other in Washington DC) to become a provider State under the IAVW. In addition to the VAACs, the IAVW also includes the Anchorage Meteorological Watch Office (MWO) and the (6 pages) IAVWOPSG.6.WP en.docx

2 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) in which the VAAC supports. Also as part of the IAVW, is the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) which is operated conjointly by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska (UAFGI), the State of Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys (ADDGS) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The Kamchatkan Volcanic Eruption Response Team (KVERT) also provides important informational updates on the volcanoes in Kamchatka and North Kurile Islands. The Sakhalin Volcanic Eruption Response Team (SVERT) provides important informational updates for the Central Kurile Islands. 2.2 This management report presents information on the operations of the Anchorage VAAC by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS). Within the NWS, the Alaska Aviation Weather Unit (AAWU) is designated as the Anchorage VAAC. The Anchorage VAAC supports the Anchorage MWO which is responsible for aviation forecast and warning support within the Anchorage FIR. In addition to the MWO, the NWS also operates a Center Weather Service Unit (CWSU) collocated in the Anchorage ARTCC that also advises traffic management unit supervisors based on input from the VAAC. Volcanic ash response for aviation is a team effort and this management report summarizes how the VAAC interacts and works with the ARTCC, MWO, CWSU, and AVO under its mandate in meeting the IAVW Program. 2.3 The Anchorage VAAC area includes the entire Anchorage FIR in addition to an area of Far Eastern Russia bounded on the west by 150 E longitude and on the south by 60 N latitude. This area includes all of the volcanoes within the state of Alaska and in addition, the Anchorage VAAC closely monitors adjacent volcanoes located in Kamchatka Peninsula and the Northern Kurile Islands of Russia Within the Anchorage VAACs area of responsibility are North Pacific (NOPAC) jet routes that link North America with Asia. These jet routes pass within close proximity of over 100 historically active volcanoes. Significant eruptions, which produce ash to heights greater than FL250 can greatly impact air traffic across the North Pacific region. 3. OPERATIONS OF THE VAAC 3.1 This section describes operations of the Anchorage VAAC in accordance with the IAVW in describing the issuance of VAAs, identification of significant eruptions that influenced the performance of operations, changes in operational procedures or use of technology to enhance operational capability of the VAAC, and issues related to back-up operations. 3.2 The following table shows a listing of the events during the period December 1, 2009 through June 30, 2011: Volcano Name Start Date End Date VA Advisories VA SIGMETs Bezymianny 3 Jun Jun Cleveland 12 Sep Sep Katmai* 27 Sep 2010, 30 Nov 2010, 11 May Kizimen 5 Jan 2011 Present Klyuchevskoy 7 Sep Nov Sheveluch 28 Oct 2010 Present * Three Katmai ash re-suspension events

3 - 3 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/38 The Anchorage VAAC also serves as the MWO for the Anchorage FIR. The Anchorage MWO issued 56 Volcanic Ash (VA) SIGMETS during the reporting period. During the previous reporting period 403 VA SIGMETS were issued. This is a significant decrease from the previous reporting period. 3.3 Significant eruptions in the VAAC area: Alaskan events: Eruptions of Cleveland and ash Resuspension from Katmai Cleveland volcano had produced a small eruption on September 12, 2010 and the Anchorage VAAC issued a single VAA for the event. On September 27, 2010 and again on November 30, 2010 and May 11, 2011, there were volcanic ash resuspension events from the Katmai area of southcentral Alaska. The original source of the ash was from the Novarupta event back in This catastrophic eruption deposited several tens of feet of ash in the Katmai National Park and Preserve, which is located about 100 miles southwest of Anchorage. Recent warm dry conditions have melted snow and glaciers in the area exposing this relic ash. The resuspension of ash is meteorologically induced and is caused by strong gap winds which suspend the relic ash to altitudes as high as feet asl. SIGMETs and Volcanic Ash Advisories are issued for these events. Pilots have been educated to be aware of such ash resuspension events. Forecasters expect to see more of these types of events in the future Kamchatka Peninsula events The Kamchatka volcanoes remained very active through the period. However, many of the Kamchatka eruptions were close to the Anchorage FIR but remained in the Tokyo VAACs area of responsibility and moved directly into the Washington VAAC area of responsibility Some of the Kamchatka volcanoes that have been active during the period include Bezymianny, Klyuchevskoy, Kizimen and Sheveluch. The most active volcano which caused the most impact to air traffic in and near the Anchorage FIR was from Kizimen volcano The Kizimen eruption began in mid November 2010 and the Anchorage VAAC issued VAAs beginning on November 30 th through June 13, A total of 45 VAAs and 12 SIGMETs have been

4 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ issued by the Anchorage VAAC and Alaska Aviation Weather Unit respectively. These eruptions produced impacts to the western portions of the Anchorage FIR. The Anchorage CWSU worked closely with FAA Air Traffic personnel in providing up to date briefings and forecasts of the ash plumes and potential impacts to the Anchorage FIR. ANCHORAGE VAAC ACTIVITY TIMELINE DECEMBER 2009 JUNE Dec 09 3 Jun 10 7 Sep Nov 10 5 Jan 11 KLYUCHEVSKOY SHEVELUCH KIZIMEN 12 Sep Sep Oct May Jun 11 BEZYMIANNY CLEVELAND KATMAI Significant operation or technical changes The Anchorage VAAC continues to use the operational account a-vaac@noaa.gov. This account allows other VAACs and the USGS/AVO to send notification of volcanic activity directly to the VAAC forecaster on duty An update of the Alaska Interagency Operating Plan for Volcanic Ash Episodes is schedule for an update in the Fall The U.S. submitted a working paper to ICAO IAVWOPSG/6 describing a permanent southward shift of the Anchorage/Washington VAAC border. A main reason for this shift southward is to allow the Anchorage VAAC time to coordinate a hand-off to the Washington VAAC when Aleutian volcanoes eruption and ash moves south or southeast The Anchorage VAAC now has a Google Earth display of all VAAs for each of the nine VAACs available at The Alaska Aviation Weather Unit (AAWU) has a Google Earth display of SIGMETs (including VA SIGMETs) from Japan, U.S., Russia and Canada available on Volcanic Ash Advisories are now created through a new tool within IC4D that automatically creates the text for the forecaster. This has drastically reduced the time to issue the advisories as well have cut down on potential errors Recently, the Anchorage VAAC has built a training and simulation computer to provide forecasters access to the tools they use in everyday operations outside of the operations environment. This system allows our forecasters to train and stay prepared in between volcanic events, or when seismic

5 - 5 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/38 activity increases at a certain volcano to practice drills for possible eruptions. This includes the ability to practice issuing VAAs without actually transmitting the product. In the near future, this computer will be used along with a simulation computer with which we can use historical event data to cover real cases in a practice environment to improve or determine better operational procedures Over the past 18 months the Anchorage VAAC has increased the number of satellite products available from polar orbiters, and improved the data feed and latency times of our current geostationary satellite products. The VAAC is now able to view split window and three-channel differencing from POES, which gives us better resolution and ash detection capabilities. Additionally, the Anchorage VAAC is participating in the GOES-R proving ground which is providing products using the MODIS aboard the Terra and Aqua satellites. These products include volcanic ash height, effective radius (a proxy for particle size and atmospheric residency times for airborne volcanic ash), mass loading (a proxy for ash concentration), and SO2 detection. Although these products are in an evaluation phase, there has already been some value provided to operations. Finally, to improve our reliability and latency of geostationary satellite products we ve moved our GOES and MT-SAT products into our operational system, AWIPS. 3.5 VAAC back-up The Washington VAAC provides official back-up for the Anchorage VAAC A call for back-up services has not been requested by the Anchorage VAAC There were no scheduled back-up tests conducted, however, plans are underway for a backup test in the near future. 4. IAVW IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES 4.1 Situational awareness: One of the greatest obstacles in disseminating timely information on a hazardous event is the situational awareness of communicating the same message to all stakeholders. As part of the IAVW, the VAAC in consultation with the ARTCC, MWO, and AVO must have access to the same information in a timely manner. Shared situational awareness through data sharing and communication is critical to provide a single, consistent message to the Airline Operations Center and Flight Crews. 5. FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS 5.1 The Anchorage VAAC/MWO has been working in conjunction with the Aviation Services Branch (ASB), the Meteorological Development Lab (MDL), the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), and others, in developing a forecasting tool called Interactive Collaboration in Four Dimensions (IC4D). This new tool is part of the FAA and the Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) NextGen 4D Cube project. The VAAC/MWO will be developing Volcanic Ash tools within the IC4D. Some of these tools will have the capability to issue graphical products such as VAGs (and SIGMETS) and will be able to run Volcanic Ash Dispersion models (such as PUFF). 5.2 The Anchorage VAAC has been involved in the testing, evaluation, and providing requirements for a new collaboration tool for volcanic ash. The new tool developed by StormCenter Inc. in conjunction with NOAA/NWS and NASA SPoRT allows users to collaborate on various data sets, annotate, and share data via a Google Earth based system. All of the data are georefenced and displayable as.kml or.kmz

6 IAVWOPSG/6-WP/ files. This is a follow-on to the VACT (Volcanic Ash Collaboration Tool) development effort which began in the U.S. back in A demonstration of this tool with a few of the VAACs is planned for ACTION BY THE IAVWOPSG 6.1 The IAVWOPSG is invited to note information in this paper. END