Icelandic volcano's ash blanket was electric
The cloud of ash blowing south from an Icelandic volcano last month was electrically charged. It's a finding that could be exploited to build detectors to warn pilots when they are flying into danger
Volcanic ash is deadly stuff for aircraft, and has been known to clog up engines and cause them to stall. But the disruption to European air traffic last month caused by the ash could have been reduced if pilots had an instrument that could detect ash clouds, says Giles Harrison of the meteorology department at the University of Reading in the UK.
On 19 April, when Eyjafjallajökull's cloud hung over Europe, Harrison and his colleagues released a weather balloon carrying instruments to measure particle size and concentration, and the electrical charge in the atmosphere, from a site on the west coast of Scotland.
