(02-16-2026, 07:10 PM)HereOnThePrimalEdge Wrote: Episode 42 ended early this morning, Monday February 16.
The NWS issued a ashfall advisory yesterday. I haven’t noticed any ash or tephra in my neck of the woods in Puna. I also haven’t been able to find an ashfall map as was released for episode 41.
Anyone?
Wind direction, weather at the time, and the actual eruption all make a difference. For decades, the observatories on MK worked just fine with Kilauea's continuous eruptions, but they were also aware that an eruption on Mauna Loa was different. The 1984 eruption stripped the mirror coating. All the observatories learned a lesson. Kilauea wasn't a big threat because the emissions were kept below the inversion layer, but Mauna Loa eruptions were above the inversion layer, so acidic gases were an issue.
The 2022 Mauna Loa eruption caused many issues, but for the observatories, it meant shutting down and closing to prevent sulphuric acid from eating away at the mirror coatings.
Unlike 1984, we have detectors that measure particles at the summit region of MK. Some of the recent Kilauea eruptions were powerful enough to throw acidic material well above the inversion layer and were detected on MK, causing telescopes to close. The recent one, event 42, hasn't done that, probably because the wind is blowing the emissions away from MK.
If you are interested, I do recommend three sites. The first is a Vog forecast, the other two are particle detections on MK. If you see a spike in the latter two, you know volcanic gases have made their way to MK's summit and likely Puna and Hilo. Right now, they're not showing much.
http://weather.hawaii.edu/vmap/new/
https://software.cfht.hawaii.edu/screens...rticle.png (at CFHT)
https://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/software/we.../index.php (Keck)
