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
IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29-2 - 2. 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 3.1.1 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. 3.1.2 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. 3.1.3 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 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29 Volcano 2009 2010 2011 N D J F M A M J J A S O N D J F M A M J Total Sakurajima 58 110 124 109 96 103 43 76 65 56 36 17 60 50 68 86 68 97 81 42 1445 Suwanosejima 12 21 46 35 1 2 7 4 8 12 17 35 8 13 10 5 2 1 239 Kirishimayama 1 1 1 35 77 24 6 8 153 Asosan 37 19 56 Miyakejima 1 3 4 Ioto 1 1 Sheveluch 9 13 20 2 8 19 3 6 17 6 7 25 54 6 3 14 17 21 17 26 293 Kliuchevskoi 3 1 5 5 2 9 18 8 18 12 54 79 33 4 4 1 2 258 Kizimen 1 8 77 31 59 28 4 12 220 Karymsky 10 4 1 1 14 8 11 2 3 1 1 6 2 6 2 7 3 82 Bezymianny 5 1 12 1 1 20 Mary-Semyachik 1 1 Ebeko 1 1 Bulusan 7 6 4 11 6 9 43 Mayon 3 7 10 Canlaon 1 1 Total 95 161 196 151 108 134 88 112 120 84 112 139 190 84 206 232 189 166 148 112 2827 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
IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29-4 - 3.2 Volcanoes for which VAAs were issued in this period 3.2.1 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 11000 feet (on May 2010). Most of the ash plumes were not identifiable in satellite imagery. 3.2.2 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. 3.2.3 Kirishimayama (Kyushu island, 153 VAAs) : Small eruptive activity was observed from May to July in 2010. 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. 3.2.4 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. 3.2.5 Miyakejima (Izu islands, 4 VAAs) : In April and July 2010, totally 4 VAAs were issued for minor eruptions. 3.2.6 Ioto (Ogasawara islands, 1 VAA) : On 19 June 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report. 3.2.7 Sheveluch (Kamchatka peninsula, 293 VAAs) : Continuous activity has been observed since 2008. 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-2. 3.2.8 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. 3.2.9 Kizimen (Kamchatka peninsula, 220 VAAs) : This volcano had been considered to be dormant since 1927. 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. 3.2.10 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 2010. 3.2.11 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 - IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29 3.2.12 Maly-Semyachik (Kamchatka peninsula, 1 VAA) : On 29 December 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report. 3.2.13 Ebeko (Kuril islands, 1 VAA) : On 2 July 2010, one VAA was issued upon an observation report. 3.2.14 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. 3.2.15 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 2010. 3.2.16 Canlaon (Philippines, 1 VAA) : On 15 May 2010, one VAA was issued upon a pilot report. 3.2.17 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 3.3.1 Despite the devastating earthquake and tsunami occurred on 11 March 2011 in Tohoku region of Japan, VAAC Tokyo has successfully continued its work. 3.3.2 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. 3.3.3 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 3.4.1 VAAC Tokyo has a duplicated system for issuance of VAAs in case of any trouble or maintenance. 3.4.2 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. 3.4.3 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 2011. Among them, 5 members are dispatched as exclusive operational staff and other 2 members are engaged to management work.
IAVWOPSG/6-WP/29-6 - 4.2 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