Sulphur dioxide fluxes from Papua New Guinea's volcanoes

[1] Papua New Guinea (PNG) hosts some of the most prolific degassing volcanoes in the world. Collectively, they are thought to be responsible for a significant contribution of sulfur dioxide to the regional and global atmosphere. Despite their importance, very few measurements of SO2 fluxes from PNG volcanoes have been made in the past, leading to uncertainty in estimates of total global volcanic sulfur budgets. We report here sulphur dioxide flux measurements obtained by ultraviolet spectroscopy during July and August 2003 for the following PNG volcanoes: Tavurvur, Ulawun, Pago, Langila, Bagana and Manam. We found fluxes of 1.3, 7.4, 1.4, 2.9, 23 and 2.1 kg s−1, respectively, for these sources. This amounts to a total of 38 kg s−1 of SO2, constituting some 6–9% and 7–12% of the estimated global time-integrated volcanic emissions to the atmosphere, and troposphere, respectively.