Abstract

The NASA/Ames Research C-141 aircraft underflew the Mount St. Helens ejecta plume in Utah three days after the eruption. Upward-looking 20–40-μm on-board radiometry provided data resulting in a calculated long-wave transmission of 0.93. From this value, an optical depth of 0.073 is inferred. This value is compared with an accepted background, stratospheric infrared optical depth of 0.06. Assumptions on particle size, shortwave albedo, and thermal warming imply little surface temperature change caused by the ejecta on the third day immediately following the eruption.

© 1981 Optical Society of America

Lidar survey of the post Mt. St. Helens stratospheric aerosol at Haute Provence Observatory

J. Lefrere, J. Pelon, C. Cahen, A. Hauchecome, and P. Flamant
Appl. Opt. 20(7) A70-1117 (1981)

Lidar observations of the Mount St. Helens dust layers over Urbana, Illinois

C. S. Gardner, C. F. Sechrist, and J. D. Shelton
Appl. Opt. 19(18) A192-3031 (1980)

Effects of variation in cloudiness and stratospheric aerosol scattering upon tropospheric UV flux, photolysis rates, and the ozone urban plume

Gregory L. Matloff
Appl. Opt. 20(22) 3947-3950 (1981)

Modeling of growth and evaporation effects on the extinction of 1.0-μm solar radiation traversing stratospheric sulfuric acid aerosols

Glenn K. Yue and Adarsh Deepak
Appl. Opt. 20(20) 3669-3675 (1981)

Balloon-borne laser heterodyne radiometer for measurements of stratospheric trace species

R. T. Menzies, C. W. Rutledge, R. A. Zanteson, and D. L. Spears
Appl. Opt. 20(4) 536-544 (1981)