Due to the US Government shutdown, the Smithsonian is temporarily closed. The Global Volcanism Program website will remain available but will not be monitored or updated. Status updates will be available on the Smithsonian homepage.
Logo link to homepage

Report on Atmospheric Effects (1995-2001) — October 1997


Atmospheric Effects (1995-2001)

Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, vol. 22, no. 10 (October 1997)
Managing Editor: Richard Wunderman.

Atmospheric Effects (1995-2001) Lidar data from Germany

Please cite this report as:

Global Volcanism Program, 1997. Report on Atmospheric Effects (1995-2001) (Wunderman, R., ed.). Bulletin of the Global Volcanism Network, 22:10. Smithsonian Institution.



Atmospheric Effects (1995-2001)

All times are local (unless otherwise noted)


The Pinatubo aerosol layer at Garmisch-Partenkirchen declined to a minimum in the summer of 1996 (Bulletin v. 21, no. 12, and v. 22, no. 5). Since then no further decay has been observed. The backscattering ratio during June-October 1997 was consistently in the 1.05-1.08 range (Nd-YAG) with the peak layer altitude at 16.4-19.2 km (table 12).

Table 12. Lidar data from Germany (June-October 1997) showing altitudes of aerosol layers. Backscattering ratios are for the Nd-YAG wavelength of 0.53 µm with equivalent ruby values in parentheses. The integrated value shows total backscatter, expressed in steradians-1, integrated over 300-m intervals from the tropopause to 30 km. The "ci" stands for cirrus clouds; their presence in the tropopause region usually obscures the lower boundary of the aerosol layer. Courtesy of Horst Jager.

DATE LAYER ALTITUDE (km) (peak) BACKSCATTERING RATIO BACKSCATTERING INTEGRATED
Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (47.5°N, 11.0°E)
04 Jun 1997 ci-25 (19.9) 1.08 (1.16) --
29 Jun 1997 9-26 (16.8) 1.08 (1.15) --
11 Jul 1997 13-27 (17.9) 1.06 (1.12) --
15 Jul 1997 12-27 (17.7) 1.07 (1.14) --
20 Jul 1997 10-27 (18.5) 1.07 (1.14) --
30 Jul 1997 13-24 (18.2) 1.05 (1.10) --
04 Aug 1997 12-25 (18.8) 1.06 (1.12) --
18 Aug 1997 12-25 (17.7) 1.05 (1.10) --
08 Sep 1997 14-25 (18.3) 1.08 (1.15) --
26 Sep 1997 14-28 (16.5) 1.08 (1.16) --
06 Oct 1997 13-28 (16.4) 1.07 (1.14) --
17 Oct 1997 14-26 (17.7) 1.06 (1.13) --
28 Oct 1997 11-28 (19.2) 1.08 (1.16) --

Information Contacts: Horst Jager, Fraunhofer-Institut fur Atmospharische Umweltforschung, Kreuzeckbahnstrasse 19, D-8100 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.