Triboelectric charging of volcanic ash from the 2011 Grímsvötn eruption

Houghton, I. M. P., Aplin, K. L. and Nicoll, K. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5580-6325 (2013) Triboelectric charging of volcanic ash from the 2011 Grímsvötn eruption. Physical Review Letters, 111 (11). 118501. ISSN 0031-9007 doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.118501

Abstract/Summary

The plume from the 2011 eruption of Grímsvötn was highly electrically charged, as shown by the considerable lightning activity measured by the United Kingdom Met Office’s low-frequency lightning detection network. Previous measurements of volcanic plumes have shown that ash particles are electrically charged up to hundreds of kilometers away from the vent, which indicates that the ash continues to charge in the plume [R. G. Harrison, K. A. Nicoll, Z. Ulanowski, and T. A. Mather, Environ. Res. Lett. 5 024004 (2010); H. Hatakeyama J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn. 27 372 (1949)]. In this Letter, we study triboelectric charging of different size fractions of a sample of volcanic ash experimentally. Consistently with previous work, we find that the particle size distribution is a determining factor in the charging. Specifically, our laboratory experiments demonstrate that the normalized span of the particle size distribution plays an important role in the magnitude of charging generated. The influence of the normalized span on plume charging suggests that all ash plumes are likely to be charged, with implications for remote sensing and plume lifetime through scavenging effects.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/34253
Identification Number/DOI	10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.118501
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	American Physical Society
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