This dataset contains global monthly averaged effective sulphur dioxide (SO2) column amounts derived from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on the METOP-A satellite. The data have been produced by the University of Oxford as part of the NERC Centre for the Observation and Modelling of Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Tectonics (COMET).

This dataset has been produced using the Walker et al. (2011, 2012) linear retrieval developed for the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer, which is able to detect sulphur dioxide (SO2) gas. This dataset contains monthly averages of this retrieval output from June 2007 to December 2014 across the globe, within which it is possible to identify the period and the location of when we have an anomaly of SO2 in atmosphere. This includes volcanic eruptions alongside non-eruptive volcanic degassing, and human pollution sources.

Within the dataset are the average effective SO2 column amounts in Dobson Units (DU) for 0.125º by 0.125º gridboxes across the globe. Also included for each grid box are the standard deviation, and the number of pixel boxes contributing to the mean. The results from this dataset are discussed in Taylor et al. (2018) 'Exploring the utility of IASI for monitoring volcanic SO2 emissions' in review at JGR: Atmospheres.