On the absolute calibration of SO 2 cameras

Abstract

Abstract. Sulphur dioxide emission flux measurements are an important tool for volcanic monitoring and eruption risk assessment. The SO2 camera technique remotely measures volcanic emissions by analysing the ultraviolet absorption of SO2 in a narrow spectral window between 305 nm and 320 nm using solar radiation scattered in the atmosphere. The SO2 absorption is selectively detected by mounting band-pass interference filters in front of a two-dimensional, UV-sensitive CCD detector. While this approach is simple and delivers valuable insights into the two-dimensional SO2 distribution, absolute calibration has proven to be difficult. An accurate calibration of the SO2 camera (i.e., conversion from optical density to SO2 column density, CD) is crucial to obtain correct SO2 CDs and flux measurements that are comparable to other measurement techniques and can be used for volcanological applications. The most common approach for calibrating SO2 camera measurements is based on inserting quartz cells (cuvettes) containing known amounts of SO2 into the light path. It has been found, however, that reflections from the windows of the calibration cell can considerably affect the signal measured by the camera. Another possibility for calibration relies on performing simultaneous measurements in a small area of the camera's field-of-view (FOV) by a narrow-field-of-view Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (NFOV-DOAS) system. This procedure combines the very good spatial and temporal resolution of the SO2 camera technique with the more accurate column densities obtainable from DOAS measurements. This work investigates the uncertainty of results gained through the two commonly used, but quite different calibration methods (DOAS and calibration cells). Measurements with three different instruments, an SO2 camera, a NFOV-DOAS system and an Imaging DOAS (IDOAS), are presented. We compare the calibration-cell approach with the calibration from the NFOV-DOAS system. The respective results are compared with measurements from an IDOAS to verify the calibration curve over the spatial extend of the image. Our results show that calibration cells can lead to an overestimation of the SO2 CD by up to 60% compared with CDs from the DOAS measurements. Besides these errors of calibration, radiative transfer effects (e.g. light dilution, multiple scattering) can significantly influence the results of both instrument types. These effects can lead to an even more significant overestimation or, depending on the measurement conditions, an underestimation of the true CD. Previous investigations found that possible errors can be more than an order of magnitude. However, the spectral information from the DOAS measurements allows to correct for these radiative transfer effects. The measurement presented in this work were taken at Popocatépetl, Mexico, between 1 March 2011 and 4 March 2011. Average SO2 emission rates between 4.00 kg s−1 and 14.34 kg s−1 were observed.