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Spectacular Lightning Revealed in 2009 Mount Redoubt Eruption Sonja A University of South Florida Scholar Commons School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff School of Geosciences Publications 5-15-2012 Spectacular Lightning Revealed in 2009 Mount Redoubt Eruption Sonja A. Behnke Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Ronald J. Thomas Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Paul R. Krehbiel Langmuir Laboratory, New Mexico Stephen R. McNutt University of Alaska Fairbanks, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub Part of the Earth Sciences Commons Scholar Commons Citation Behnke, Sonja A.; Thomas, Ronald J.; Krehbiel, Paul R.; and McNutt, Stephen R., "Spectacular Lightning Revealed in 2009 Mount Redoubt Eruption" (2012). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 338. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/338 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Geosciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff ubP lications by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Eos, Vol. 93, No. 20, 15 May 2012 VOLUME 93 NUMBER 20 15 MAY 2012 EOS, TRANSACTIONS, AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION PAGES 193–200 over spans of less than 10 minutes, and some Spectacular Lightning Revealed produced no discernible lightning. All but two or three of the volcanic explosions were obscured from view by inclement weather, in 2009 Mount Redoubt Eruption but all were readily detected at VHF. Clouds temporarily shut down and the plane to expe- produced by the largest explosions reached PAGES 193–194 rience a precipitous drop in altitude [Brant- altitudes of 10–19 kilometers, well into the ley, 1990]. Fortunately, the crew members The explosive eruption of Alaska’s Mount stratosphere, and subsequently drifted down- were able to restart the engines and land Redoubt volcano in March and April 2009 wind, with lightning extending from 10 to 150 safely in nearby Anchorage, Alaska. Detec- provided a superb opportunity for studying kilometers into the downwind plume. The tion of volcanic lightning could confirm the volcanic lightning. The energetic explosions explosively active period of the eruption cli- presence of ash-rich clouds and help prevent produced powerful volcanic lightning storms, maxed on 4 April 2009 with the most power- future incidents. the largest of which rivaled the intensity of ful event of the sequence. Following this, the the massive supercell thunderstorms that fre- eruption continued with the slow extrusion of Imaging Volcanic Lightning quent the midwestern Great Plains. a lava dome and no lightning. Although lightning often has been Within days of learning about Mount Comparison With observed in the plumes of explosive volca- Redoubt’s increasing precursory activity, Mount St. Augustine Eruption nic eruptions, only a handful of detailed four portable very high frequency (VHF) studies have delved into the origins of vol- Lightning Mapping Array (LMA) stations The electrical activity observed at Mount canic lightning. Active volcanoes tend to be were deployed along the west coast of Redoubt was similar to that detected during the situated in remote locations, where they are the Kenai Peninsula, 80 kilometers east of January 2006 eruption of Mount St. Augustine, difficult to observe, and often have sudden, Redoubt, and in clear line of sight of the 3.1- which sits farther to the south in Cook Inlet. unpredicted eruptions. Even when the erup- kilometer- high (10,200-foot) volcano (Fig- The Augustine observations, the first made tions are observed close at hand, the volca- ure 1a). The mapping stations were set up using the VHF lightning mapping approach, nic clouds are intensely opaque, obscuring outdoors in wintry conditions in late January were obtained using two mapping stations that most of the lightning from view. and early February 2009. determined only the azimuthal direction to the Because of heightened seismicity When a lightning discharge occurs, it pro- lightning sources [Thomas et al., 2007]. That 2 months in advance of the Mount Redoubt duces a succession of bursts of VHF radio study identified two distinct phases in the light- eruption, a group of researchers from New emissions. The LMA remotely images light- ning activity: an explosive phase and a plume Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ning by locating the sources of these VHF phase (Figure 1d), with the latter phase follow- and University of Alaska Fairbanks were emissions. Water and ash clouds, while ing the first after a slight delay. The same two able to install lightning mapping instru- opaque in the visible spectrum, are fully phases are evident in the recent Mount Redoubt mentation in time to observe the complete transparent to radio signals, enabling one observations (Figure 1e), except that they tend sequence of the volcanic lightning activity. to effectively see inside the volcanic plume. to overlap in time [Behnke et al., 2012]. The Redoubt had already been heavily instru- Each LMA station accurately records the overlap is likely due to the Redoubt explosions mented by the Alaska Volcano Observatory, arrival times of the impulsive VHF sig- being both more energetic and of longer dura- with instruments in place to measure seis- nals using GPS timing. The peak power of tion than those of Mount St. Augustine. mic and acoustic activity. the incoming VHF radiation is recorded The Mount Redoubt observations (Fig- The study of volcanic lightning is important over successive 10-microsecond intervals, ure 1e) showed that at the beginning of an because it provides a means of remotely detect- enabling tens to hundreds of impulsive explosive event the lightning radiation was ing or confirming eruptions that pose a threat to events to be located per discharge [Thomas very intense and essentially continuous, sim- modern- day activities, such as global air traffic. et al., 2004]. ilar to the electrical activity identified as the Mount Redoubt is situated at the northeast- Mount Redoubt erupted explosively explosive phase in the Mount St. Augustine ern end of the Aleutian volcanic arc and is between 23 March and 4 April 2009, produc- observations. Seismic and acoustic mea- on one of the busiest cargo and passenger ing more than 30 distinct explosive events of surements (Figures 1f and 1g) made within airplane routes in the world. For example, differing intensities and durations through- 12 kilometers of the vent confirmed that this during its 1989–1990 eruption a large com- out the eruption (see http:// lightning .nmt .edu/ initially intense lightning was associated mercial jetliner flew through an ash cloud redoubt). The largest explosions triggered with the individual volcanic explosions. Ani- from Redoubt, causing all four engines to intense lightning storms that lasted from 20 to mations of the located lightning data during 70 minutes and produced thousands of light- the explosive event showed that the electri- BY S. A. BEHNKE, R. J. THOMas, P. R. KREHBIEL, ning flashes. Smaller explosions produced cal activity initially consisted of innumerable AND S. R. MCNUtt fewer than 10 detected lightning discharges small, randomly occurring discharges. © 2012. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. Eos, Vol. 93, No. 20, 15 May 2012 Following this continuous period of light- ning, the radiation in the plume phase became increasingly intermittent over time, similar to the Augustine observations, with discrete discharges toward the end of the plume phase being separated by minutes of inactivity. The observations showed dis- charges during the plume phase becoming larger in extent and duration and occur- ring progressively downwind of the volcano in the drifting plume. Flash rates during the explosive event presented in Figure 1b ranged from 100 to 150 flashes per min- ute during the plume phase. In the largest explosions, such as those on 23 March and 4 April, flash rates are estimated to have been at least twice as high, comparable to observed lightning rates in supercell thun- derstorms in the United States. Electrification Processes Of particular interest in volcanic light- ning studies is the question of how volcanic plumes become strongly electrified, includ- ing the roles of high temperatures, magma composition, ash, and gas content in this process. The Mount St. Augustine observa- tions indicated that there are separate elec- trification processes for the explosive and plume phases. During the explosive phase, nearly continuous electrical discharges were Fig. 1. (a) Locations of the Mount Redoubt and Mount St. Augustine volcanoes (triangles) and observed occurring close to the vent. Further, lightning mapping stations (squares) in Alaska. (b) Map view of very high frequency (VHF)– the onset of the lightning activity was concur- detected lightning activity during the explosive eruption at 23:29 UTC on 28 March 2009 (courte- rent with the volcanic explosion, indicating sy of International Commission on Atmospheric Electricity). The uncertainties in the plan position that the ejecta were already highly electrified of the lightning sources were approximately 200 meters or less. The lightning began over Mount as they exited the vent. The combination of Redoubt (marked with white crosshairs) and continued for 40 minutes as the plume drifted intense lightning at the vent of the volcano eastward toward Nikiski, Alaska (with increasing time coded by color). Twelve cloud-to-ground simultaneous with the onset of the eruption (CG) discharges (10 negative CGs (triangles) and 2 positive CGs (crosses)) were located by the suggests that a silica-based charging process, Bureau of Land Management Lightning Detection System during the event. (c) Composite pho- in which ash is charged as magma fractures tograph of in-cloud and CG lightning during the explosive eruption at 07:19 UTC on 28 March within the volcano, was acting during the 2009, including an outline of Mount Redoubt (photographs taken from Seldovia, Alaska, 125 explosive phase [James et al., 2008]. kilometers to the south- southeast, by Brentwood Higman; http:// www . groundtruthtrekking .org/ The continuation of large-scale lightning in blog/ ?p =849).
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