Why have SO2 forecast levels disappeared in Hawaii?
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we frequently check the SO2 (aka vog) levels that have been continuously released from volcanic vents on big island of hawaii for years. even at low levels it affects our lungs/asthma so we keep an eye on wind directions and SO2. in the past few weeks, not sure exactly when, the SO2 forecast map has drastically changed to almost nothing even though local reporting agencies are still showing the same output. there seems to be significant changes in the windy/copernicus reporting data, does anyone know what happened?
sometimes the map overlay did look pretty red, iʻve seen people post before that hawaii levels looked exaggerated but as someone who is affected by even low SO2 the previous prediction models were pretty accurate. i donʻt understand why the whole hawaiian island chain is suddenly devoid of SO2 (other parts of the world map might look less red also but iʻm really only familiar with hawaii). did the algorithm or whatever creates this data change significantly? where did all the SO2 go?! weʻd love to have a useful reference tool again @ windy.
this is what any random day in hawaii has looked like for years until recently:
this is what it looks like NOW:
even our local prediction models are currently showing SO2 from the vents so what happened to windy/copernicus data?:
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@curiousmouse Hello, please see the explanation here - https://community.windy.com/topic/16554/windy-hacked/5
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@korina thanks for your reply. not sure i understand that link though, it was stated that the forecast prediction must have changed. my question is did the actual monitoring algorithms or something change too because weʻve had solid SO2 readings (reflected on windy) every day for years due to constant venting from the volcanoes whether or not they are in full ʻeruptionʻ, and now there is nothing. i donʻt think windy was hacked, but something significant has changed and iʻm trying to understand where the data went? especially when local monitoring stations ARE showing SO2. maybe iʻm missing the point of the linked post but iʻm still confused :)
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@curiousmouse
What I’ve tried to explain is that the SO2 plume shown on Windy layer is the amount of this gas somewhere between ground and the top of atmosphere. And consequently, there is NO direct relationship between this total amount and the concentration near the ground.
You say that you observe locally near the ground a significant concentration of SO2 and Windy map shows almost nothing. This is possible.
Right now on Windy the local air quality stations does not present high figures of SO2. Do you have different values?
Your map picture has been trimmed and there no possibility to know the maximum altitude of the shown plume.
Please could you give the link to get this map? -
@curiousmouse
To illustrate my previous post, a small sketch is sometime better than a long talk.
Here is the general case which is usually observed:
But emissions closer to the ground are possible, reason why it is better to rely on Air Quality Stations:
Of course intermediate cases may be observed and these sketches are to somehow theoretical.
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@idefix37 sorry, that map picture was pulled from a past screenshot, i dontʻ have a link to it, just used it as a visual of what our so2 looked like every day until recently. i think i understand what youʻre saying about ground vs elevation. my question was more superficial in nature, when weʻve visually had a dark red so2 map every day for years and now suddenly itʻs all gone. anyway, i think weʻve gone round this enough, i am still confused but time to let it go :)
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I idefix37 referenced this topic on
