Progress in protecting air travel from volcanic ash clouds

The Eyjafjallajökull eruption of 2010 demonstrated the far-reaching impact of ash clouds and the vulnerability of our jet-based society to them, prompting a review of procedures to detect, warn, and forecast ash cloud hazards to aviation. The years since 2010 have seen marked improvements in satellite technology, more accurate ash-dispersion models that integrate simulations with observations, and more thoroughly vetted and harmonized procedures for forecasting and communicating hazards. In the coming decade, we expect these trends to continue, with formal warning products migrating from text and simplified maps to 4D data streams. This paper details some of these advancements and challenges ahead.