New Delhi: Volcanic ash from Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi covered parts of India late Monday night. Weather experts tracking the ash cloud said it might affect air traffic due to reduced visibility, but would not have a significant impact on air quality.
“The cloud is now moving towards China. The cloud will move past India by Tuesday evening,” said Director General M Mohapatra of the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Hayli Gubbi, a shield volcano located in Ethiopia’s Afar region, erupted on 23 November, resulting in a large ash plume reaching approximately 14 km (45,000 ft) in altitude, which spread eastward across the Red Sea and towards the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian subcontinent.
ThePrint explains what this ash cloud is, how it travelled, and the cities it has impacted along the way.
What is it and how did it reach India?
The Toulouse Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre (VAAC) in France said that the volcano erupted around 8.30 am GMT Sunday for the first time in nearly 10,000 years.
The eruption produced thick clouds of smoke rising to about 14 km into the sky about 800 km northeast of Addis Ababa. While the eruption was not life-threatening, the VAAC in an announcement early Monday warned that a large ash plume was moving eastward.
A volcanic ash cloud is generally composed of fine particles of rock, volcanic glass, and minerals like silica, and gases like sulphur dioxide. These materials form when an explosive eruption violently shatters solid rock and magma into microscopic particles, which are propelled into the atmosphere. The particles shoot upwards with intense force, forming a cloud that can rise 10-20 km into the atmosphere.
IMD officials explained that strong winds carried the ash from Ethiopia across the Red Sea, Yemen, and the Arabian Sea towards northwestern India.
“Forecast models indicated potential ash influence over Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. IMD closely monitored satellite imagery, VAAC advisories and dispersion models,” a statement issued by the Indian weather agency read.
Impact of the ash cloud
The ash plume crossed Oman and reached India around 7 pm Monday.
IMD’s Met Watch Offices (MWOs) in Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata issued an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) standard Significant Meteorological Information (SIGMET) weather warning to airports.
The advisory included avoiding affected airspace and flight levels as identified in VAAC bulletins, as volcanic particles in the ash cloud form an airborne layer, clouding the skies and reducing visibility. The skies are bound to look darker than usual because of the grey clouds shrouding them.
Continuous monitoring of ash advisories is used for flight planning and adjustment of routing and fuel calculations based on alternate paths. In such a scenario, flights over the region may be rerouted, experience extended flight times, or enter holding patterns. That is exactly what happened over northwestern India between Monday evening and Tuesday morning. Several flights were cancelled and rerouted owing to low visibility.
But experts said that the Ethiopian ash cloud is unlikely to have any major impact on the region’s air quality.
“The plume does not possess any significant risk at the surface, and AQI levels will remain in the usual range, but there are low chances for some Ash fall. The Ash cloud is between 25,000 and 45,000 feet above surface levels,” IndiaMetSky Weather, a private weather forecasting channel, posted on X.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)
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