NOAA and Volcanic Ash Ash plumes that are ejected from volcanoes into the atmosphere pose costly and potentially deadly dangers to aircraft flying through them. Accidentally flying through an ash cloud is sufficient to severely damage critical aircraft components including lift surfaces, wind screens and engines. This damage endangers passengers and crew through the potential loss of aerodynamic lift, engine power (by ash ingestion), visibility and by hampering communications between the flight crew and air traffic control centers. Meteorologists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are taking steps to reduce the dangers from these ash clouds. As part of an international detection and monitoring network, NOAA tracks volcanic ash eruptions throughout the world and monitors all available satellite images for ash clouds using available geosynchronous and polar orbiting satellite images and derived products. To alert aircraft to these eruptions within its areas of Volcanic Ash Advisory Center responsibility, NOAA issues Volcanic Ash Advisory Statements that include text messages and graphics. These messages, distributed via several global networks and placed on the Internet, provide information on the location and size of the ash cloud. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction produces a Volcanic Ash Forecast Transport and Dispersion model to project the trajectory and location of the ash cloud at various altitudes in a time scale. All information is provided to the Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, Meteorological Watch Offices, climate analysts, and scientists in other countries. NOAA operates two Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers. One is in Anchorage, Alaska; the other is in Camp Springs, Md., just outside Washington DC. The Washington center is composed of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction of the National Weather Service, and the Satellite Analysis Branch of the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS). For more information contact NESDIS Public Affairs, Suitland, Md., (301) 457-5005. NOAA Public Affairs | Reporter Resources | NOAA Backgrounders Updated January 2002