Even though volcanic eruptions have been occurring since the beginning of time, only within the past 17 years with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens in the United States in May 1980 and Mt. Galunggugn in Indonesia in 1982, has the aviation community fully come to understand the seriousness of these natural events and their impact on aviation. Since that time, the United States has been struggling with the problem of how to coordinate the detection, observation, and reporting of volcanic ash and the dissemination of information that endanger aircraft en route. The responsibility to meet this commitment is spread among several U.S. agencies including the: Federal Aviation Administration, National Weather Service (NWS), National Environmental Satellite Data and Information Service, Office of Atmospheric Research (NWS), U.S. Geological Survey, Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Smithsonian Institution. This listing of agencies illustrates the complexity of the problem involved in developing a national strategy that deals with the multitude of aviation-related volcanic issues. The purpose of this paper is to focus on those issues and describe the efforts in developing a national plan which provides a framework for each agency's responsibility, role and their mission in support of the standards and recommended practices of the International Civil Aviation Organization Annex 3, Meteorological Service for International Air Navigation.
The 8th Conference on Aviation, Range, and Aerospace Meteorology