Carried by winds high up in the atmosphere, a massive cloud of ash from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in southwest Iceland has led to the closure of airports throughout the UK and Scandinavia, with further disruption in northern Europe expected later today.

The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth. It poses a serious danger to aircraft engines; hence the airspace shut down.

The volcano erupted, for the first time since 1821, on March 20 and erupted for a second time on Wednesday. The volcano, under the glacier ice, has caused ice melt and subsequent flooding and damage locally.



This animation shows the movement of the ash plume from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull glacier in Iceland.



The information has been derived from SEVIRI instrument on board the Meteosat weather satellite in combination with a particle dispersion model. This model has been developed at the Norwegian Institute for Air Research in the Department of Atmospheric and Climate Research.



This service was developed within the ESA Data User Element 'Support to Aviation for Volcanic Ash Avoidance' with the aim of generating accurate and timely satellite-based information to Volcanic Ash Advisory Centres (VAACs) to assist the aviation community.

This image, acquired on April 15, 2010, by Envisat's Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), shows the vast cloud of volcanic ash sweeping across the UK from the eruption in Iceland, more than 1,000 km away. The ash, which can be seen as the large grey streak in the image, is drifting from west to east at a height of about 11 km above the surface Earth.  Credit: ESA




The estimated ash cloud at 18:00 GMT on April 15.  Credit: Wikipedia