LAUSR

Abstract Reported SO2 emission values at strongly degassing volcanoes might be underestimated. Scanning spectroscopic instruments are widely used at volcanoes to quantify SO2 emission rates and, occasionally, molar ratios between SO2 and other gases such as BrO. Frequently, Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy is applied to evaluate spectra in the ultraviolet range. If radiative transfer effects are not considered in the evaluations, the retrieved column densities may vary depending on which spectral window is used. We compare the use of different windows for data collected at Popocatepetl volcano during strong degassing periods, when high column densities lead to especially high dependence on the applied evaluation window. We propose the use of three different windows (310–322 nm, 314.7–326.7 nm and 322–334 nm) and a simple algorithm to choose the most accurate column density from them. The SO2 evaluation using proper spectral windows would allow a more realistic estimation of the SO2 emission rates.