Out of the ashes

摘要

On the evening of 14 April, Gelsomina Pappalardo sent a rushed message to her colleagues across Europe, asking them to switch on their lasers and point them skywards. The volcano Eyjafjalla-jokull in Iceland had just erupted, and an unusual wind pattern was sending the ash cloud into Europe's crowded airspace. Pappalardo, who works at the Institute of Methodologies for Environmental Analysis outside Potenza, Italy, wanted to use the network of laser-based instruments, known as lidars, to measure the ash as it spread over the continent. It would be a chance for the lidar collaboration to shine.