Met Office response to CAA announcement
20-Apr-2010 The Met Office acknowledges the decision by CAA to change the engine tolerance levels for the safe levels of ash ingestion into aircraft engines.
The Met Office is the north-west European Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre with responsibility for issuing the Volcanic Ash Advisories for this area in line with internationally agreed standards and processes as designated by the aviation regulator and industry.
We will now provide timely advice to NATS about the dispersion of the volcanic ash in line with the new engine tolerance criteria.
Eruptions from Eyjafjallajökull have continued through today with debris being emitted up to 4 to 5 km for much of the time. Weather patterns continue to blow areas of ash towards the UK.
The Met Office uses multiple dispersion models endorsed by the international meteorological community. The output from the Met Office volcanic ash dispersion model has been compared with our neighbouring VAACs in Canada and France since the beginning of this incident and the results are consistent.
Our models are confirmed by observations which have seen ash in the UK and south of England. These include:
* Met Office and NERC aircraft have observed volcanic ash in UK airspace at varying heights.
* Multiple land observations have recorded ash in the skies across the UK, including across southern Britain.
* Balloon observations have shown a 600 m deep ash cloud at an altitude of 4 km across parts of the UK.
The Met Office is unable to advise of any details of any flights.
However, many airlines are providing information on their websites.