Assessment of planetary boundary layer schemes in modeling the dispersion and sedimentation of volcanic ash in Ecuador

We modeled the dispersion of volcanic ash for 4 eruptions which took place in Ecuador during the last 6 years, using 7 planetary boundary layer schemes for the meteorological driver. The linear correlation coefficient (R2 ) of the comparison between records and computed values of ash fallout was equal or higher than 0.5 for all the eruptions, when using the MYJ scheme. In other assessments, the MYJ was among the PBL schemes which provided good performance when modeling the dispersion of pollutants in Ecuador. These results suggest the MYJ scheme could be a good choice for modeling purposes in this region.