We’d like to show you, if we may, a visualisation of the Northern European airspace returning to use after being closed due to volcanic ash:
Due to varying ash density across Europe, the first flights can be seen in some areas on the 18th April 2010, and by the 20th of April, everywhere’s open again, and all and sundry are going about their holidaying business.
The flight data is courtesy of flightradar24.com and covers a large fraction of Europe; there are a few gaps, granted (most noticeably France), and no coverage over the Atlantic, but we can still glean the positive effect the volcano’s had on our skies – and, in turn, all the carbon that wasn’t being pumped into out atmosphere – pretty easily.