We’ve been keeping an eye on the Icelandic volcano which shut European airspace last month.  Despite a weekend of respite Eyjafjallajökull has fired up again with renewed vigour.  With weather systems coming from the North West there is a distinct risk that a new ash cloud will cause further disruption to European airspace in the very near future possibly as early as next week.

News regarding the last spate of disruptions was very well served via the internet with social media in particular being vaunted as something of a hero of the hour.  Service providers and aviation geeks were universally tweeting and retweeting updates using the "#ashtag" hashtag. Expect more of the same next time with authorities, airlines, airports and everyone else being pretty well prepared.

Here’s a definitive list of resources on all things Eyjafjallajökull:

The UK Met Office has a section of their website dedicated to the volcano updates. It includes activity updates, latest observation images and maps, plus forecast information.
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/corporate/pressoffice/2010/volcano.html
The Met Office also publishes volcano specific weather forecast charts here:
http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/aviation/vaac/data/

Eurocontrol the agency that regulates European airspace has a dedicated Volcano sub-site with up to the minute updates and resources
http://www.eurocontrol.int/corporate/public/subsite_homepage/report-ash-cloud.html

The UK air traffic control service agency NATS has latest ash avoidance statements available on their website:
http://www.nats.co.uk/index.html

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) also has an area of their website dedicated to volcanic ash news.
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=2011&pagetype=90

Local updates:
Icelandic geological services and the government’s department of Civil Protection provide some essential updates on the volcano’s activity.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html a local tremor plot

http://www.almannavarnir.is/displayer.asp?cat_id=413 Civil protection news updates.

http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-valahnjuk/ a live webcam

Images & Videos:
For those not caught up in the flight disruption there are some stunning images and videos to admire.  The Boston Globe has some superb images from mid April showing the effects of the volcano from fairly short range.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html


Here’s a gorgeous time lapse video of the eruption from YouTube


A couple of weeks back Channel4 aired a documentary called “The Volcano That Stopped Britain”.  If you are in the UK you can see it for a few more days here: http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-volcano-that-stopped-britain/4od

EDIT: Update - I was sent a link to an even better video which I highly recommend watching on full screen!!



If you do get grounded there are so many options that Conduce can assist with to help you carry out business as usual.  We can help with VOIP and Web Conferencing communication tools, mobile computing and handheld devices.  We have recently helped Mackenzie Morgan Aerospace Consultants establish a virtual office of airworthiness which proved invaluable during the last bout of flight space closures when their MD was stuck in Bahrain for a whole week.  The environment that we host allowed normal business to be conducted from a hotel room and even from a shopping mall.  Read their blog here for details of the experience.
http://www.mackenzie-morgan.com//index.php/business-contingency-planning/

One thing for certain is that the airlines, maintenance organisations, engine manufacturers and regulators have really learnt from the ash cloud experience in April.  You can be sure that disruption will be guaranteed to be kept to a bare minimum. Are you fully prepared as a passenger for the next ash cloud heading our way?