POPOCATEPETL´S ERUPTION FORECASTING USING SULFUR EMISSION DATA FROM OZONE MONITORING INSTRUMENT (OMI)

We report here measurements of SO₂ emissions from Popocatepetl volcano for the period 2015 to 2019. The data were compiled from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). OMI is a hyperspectral ultraviolet/visible spectrometer carried aboard the NASA satellite Aura with spatial resolution of 15 km x 24 Km and daily temporal resolution. Global data are available from the NASA website. Popocatepetl is located in the Trans Mexican Volcanic Belt, 70 km SE of Mexico city, which has a population of about 9 million people. Given this proximity, the volcanic activity of Popocatepetl impacts greatly social and economic activity in nearby communities, including aerial traffic for Mexico City and other regional airports. Because flux of SO₂ injected in the atmosphere varies as a function of volcanic activity (Fisher et al, 2002; Campion et al 2018) continuous monitoring of SO₂ emissions contributes to eruption forecasting. A second focus of our research is to contribute to the study of the global impact of Popocatepetl. Our preliminary results show an average of 612 tons per day of SO₂ degassing with peaks in volcanic events. Allard et al (1991) reports that volcanic passive degassing represent about 10% of the total budget of SO₂ released to the atmosphere in recent time (Allard et al., 1991). Popocatepetl volcano is, in fact, the third producer of SO₂ by continuous passive degassing globally (Carn et al., 2016). SO₂ react in the atmosphere to produce sulfate aerosols, which in turn reflect incoming solar radiance (LeGrande et al., 2016 and Schmidt et al., 2012). Finally, monitoring of Popocatepetl volcano by CENAPRED using a number of in situ methods (i.e. UV cameras) is an intensive effort. We hope to work with CENAPRED and UNAM to correlation the satellite data with data collected by their instrumentation.