OMI Sulfur Dioxide Group Web Site Introduction

This website documents the efforts of the OMI Sulfur Dioxide Group, based in the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC) and NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, to detect, track and measure volcanic eruptions and degassing and anthropogenic pollution from space. Our group primarily uses UV satellite data from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's EOS-Aura satellite and the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) to map and quantify sulfur dioxide gas (SO2) emitted by volcanoes. We also use the UV instruments to map volcanic ash and aerosol emissions, using an "Aerosol Index".


Top Stories from 2008
Featured story on the SO₂ cloud produced by the eruption of Llaima (Chile) in January 2008 on NASA's Earth Observatory.

Top Stories from 2007
OMI tracks the SO₂ cloud produced by the eruption of Jebel al-Tair (Yemen) on Sept 30, 2007, the first eruption of this Red Sea volcano since 1883. Check under 'Special cases' for images.
Top Stories from 2006
Featured story on the SO₂ cloud produced by the eruption of Nyamulagira (DR Congo) in November 2006 on NASA's Earth Observatory. Featured story on the SO₂ cloud produced by the eruption of Rabaul (PNG) in October 2006 on NASA's Earth Observatory. OMI tracked the SO2 cloud emitted by Soufriere Hills volcano (Montserrat) on May 20, 2006 as it traveled over half way around the globe - see the NASA Earth Observatory release OMI measurements of SO2 emissions from Nyiragongo (DR Congo) featured in a NOVA TV program on PBS
The Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) OMI was launched on the EOS-Aura satellite in July 2004 and superseded Earth Probe (EP) TOMS in 2006. OMI is a hyperspectral UV-Visible spectrometer with 8-fold better ground resolution (13x24 km at nadir) and an order of magnitude higher sensitivity to SO2 than TOMS. Hence, OMI can detect passive volcanic degassing in addition to the eruptive emissions measured in the past by TOMS. OMI can also measure anthropogenic SO2 emissions. Some examples of early data from OMI can be seen on the NASA Earth Observatory website (see links above under Top Stories from 2006 and in News/News from 2005). The OMI instrument is a Dutch-Finnish Instrument, provided to the EOS/Aura mission by The Netherlands and Finland. NIVR (the Dutch space agency) is the overall program manager, in coordination with FMI (the Finnish Meteorological Institute). The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) is the Principal Investigator institute.