Monitoring and Warning

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      Under the umbrella of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the challenge was quite complex but it could be done;  it involved integrating all of these valuable and  numerous in shear numbers of resource agencies. The  potential threat that volcanic ash poses to commercial jet aircraft ,however, merited bringing them together. Through ICAO, it established a collaborative working network of experts sharing information; they are government authorities, scientists, pilots, airline dispatchers, volcanologists, meteorologists, air traffic controllers and others that are all working towards this common objective of ensuring aviation safety. According to an April 2000 Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, "these efforts have identified the need for specialized air carrier operations, procedures, communications, routings, and training ..." and to meet these operational needs of the industry, " a number of government agencies have become involved in the issuance of warnings, advisories, information, and flight adjustments". This report focuses upon the major operational contact points in a very complex communication network of interactions that provides for commercial aviation safety; they are the nine Volcanic Ash Advisory Centers (VAACs), World Meteorological Offices (such as NOAA National Weather Service Aviation Weather Center ) , Air Traffic Control Centers, and Air Carrier Operations. (What's interesting about this image above is that the VAAC organization does not provide complete world monitoring as evidenced by the gaps present in their network.)
     The key to the success of commercial aviation safety is being able to provide time sensitive information to pilots and air carrier operations centers of current volcanic eruptions and of forecasted areas of volcanic activity. The aviation industry requirement of  "a warning system that strives to provide a five-minute response time once an ash eruption has been detected" according to an aircraft dispatcher for United Airlines, Leonard Salinas. Avoidance of volcanic ash encounters also helps save millions of dollars in runaway aircraft repair costs incurred as a direct result of volcanic ash inflicted damage.