Meteorology

R. Bhattacharya
Member of IAEA’s Expert Mission to Malayasia
Email: rbhattacharya@aerb.gov.in

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 Outline
• Introduction
• Fundamental Concepts
• Meteorological Variables
– Temperature
– Air Pressure
– Wind Speed and Direction
– Humidity
– Precipitation
• Air Masses
• Air Fronts
• Atmospheric Transport
• Summary

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 What is meteorology?
• Meteorology is the interdisciplinary scientific
study of the atmosphere

• It is essentially an inter-disciplinary science

because the atmosphere, land and ocean
constitute an integrated system.

• The three basic aspects of meteorology are

observation, understanding and prediction of
weather.

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 To Understand the Atmosphere

Atmosphere Examine its interfaces

with land/ocean
Sun
with space
Earth

13,000 km
Is a very thin skin
99% below 50 km (31 miles)
50% below 5.5 km (3.4 miles)

Space

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Note “thinness” of atmosphere in light blue

NASA photo gallery

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Layers of Atmoshpere

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Is Weather and Climate the same?
• Weather: The current state of the
atmosphere...what is happening right now

BUT… Climate is different

• Climate – longer time scale (the average

conditions , temperature, humidity, rainfall,
winds, and other meteorological elements
over a long period of time
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 General facts
• The sun warms the earth’s surface and therefore all the
air above the surface

• The earth is warmed most at the equator and least at the

poles

• The air above land is warmed more quickly than air

above water

• Warm air expands and rises, creating an area of low

pressure; cold air is dense and sinks, creating an area of
high pressure

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 What are weather variables?
• Temperature
• Barometric (air) pressure
• Wind speed/ Wind Direction
• Humidity (Relative humidity)
• Precipitation

Following slides will elaborate the details of each

of the above variables
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Air Temperature

Variation of
Temperature
with
atmospheric
height

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 Air Pressure
• Air Pressure- the force exerted by a column of air
at a given point

• Warm air= expanding or rising air= leaves behind

L (low) pressure

• Cold Air=sinking air= leaves an area of H (high)

pressure

• The higher the altitude… the lower the pressure

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 Wind

• Wind -moving air

• Direction and speed are needed to describe the
wind

Wind direction is the direction that wind is

blowing from

• Wind moves from High Pressure to Low Pressure

• Large pressure gradient= strong winds
• The knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical
mile per hour, which is equal to exactly 1.852 km/h
and approximately 1.151 mph

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 Wind
What are the two components in describing wind?
• Affected by:
– Horizontal pressure gradients
– Horizontal temperature gradients
– Friction related to surface roughness
Maximum height of
wind profiles indicate
Fig 3.1 where effects of surface
roughness end and
where gradient wind
begins

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 Wind
Is wind speed measured at the ground level?
• Effect of wind on emission: dilution of plume
– Doubling of the wind speed decreases pollutant levels
by 50 %
Is wind dilution mor effective in urban
Meteorological
area or countryside? Station
• Wind Direction
– Prevailing flows
– (Anti-)Cyclonic flows
– Effects of topography
• In a valley
• Along sea and lake coasts

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 N

2.70 2.86

2.62
1.92 3.45

5.34
Typical
2.86
Wind rose
W 2.52 38.63 1.80 E diagrams:
3.15 3.19 for wind
3.67
3.26 speed and
4.08 direction
6.08 5.47

S
Calms included at center.
Rings drawn at 2% intervals.
1.5 3 5 8 10.5 13 Wind flow is FROM the directions shown. 15
Wind Speed ( Meters Per Second) 8.64% of observations were missing.
 Wind Rose
Wind speed and direction are typically quite variable

164/720 = 23%
16/720 = 2.2%, 24/720 = 3.3%, 70/720 = 9.7%
Valley Land-Sea

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18
Local Winds
SEA BREEZE
During the day, the land gets hotter
faster than the water. The heated
air rises, leaving behind an area of
low pressure. Wind from the cooler
sea blows in to take the place of
that warmer air. These happen
during the day!

LAND BREEZE
At night the lands cools off faster
than the sea. Cool air sinks creating
an area of high pressure. Wind
blows from the land to the sea.

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20
 Relative Humidity

• the amount of water vapor in the air compared to what

the air can hold (before the air is saturated)

• Relative humidity is defined as the ratio of the water

vapor compared to the amount of water vapor that the
water could hold. Relative humidity is expressed as a
percentage

– Dry air= 0%
– Saturated = 100%

• High relative humidity= muggy feel or rain

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22
 Some facts

• Dry air is more dense than moist air

• Humid air is less dense than dry air because a molecule

of water (mass =1+1+16 ≈ 18 ) is less massive than a
molecule of nitrogen (mass= 14 +14 ≈ 28) and a
molecule of oxygen (16+16 ≈ 32).

• Pressure and Moisture also have an inverse relationship

• As altitude, temperature and moisture increases,

density and pressure decrease

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 Cloud Formation
• Clouds form when water vapor
condenses on aerosols (dust, salt
particles in the air)
– Factors needed for cloud
formation…

• The temperature in which

condensation begins is called
the dew point
i.e the temperature at which air
is saturated

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 TYPES OF CLOUDS
Form only at high levels,
therefore are made of ice
crystals

Cirrus Clouds: wispy, feathery clouds Cumulus Clouds: are puffy white cotton
ball looking clouds

Cumulonimbus Clouds: These Stratus Clouds: clouds that form in flat

are thunderstorm clouds layers- cover all or most of the sky and
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are low level clouds
Precipitation

Falling Liquid Or
Solid Water
From Clouds
(Rain, Drizzle,
Snow, Sleet
Freezing Rain,
Hail)

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 Types of precipitation
• Rain- Falls from clouds above Freezing
and air above freezing

• Drizzle- Small precipitation <0.5 mm

• Snow- Falls from clouds below freezing

and air below freezing

• Sleet- Falls from clouds above freezing

but air below freezing

• Hail-up and down movement of rain in

clouds multiple freezing as altitude goes
up and down 27
Haze, Fog and Smog are NOT forms of
PRECIPITATION

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 Reading a weather map
• ISOBAR= connects areas of equal pressure
BAR comes from BARometric pressure

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 Reading a weather map...
• Isotherm: Connects areas of equal
temperature; therm means temperature

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 Air Masses & Source Regions

Air Mass is an Source Regions are

extremely large body simply geographic areas
of air whose where an air mass
properties of originates. Should be:
temperature and uniform surface
moisture content composition - flat
(humidity), at any light surface winds
given altitude, are
fairly similar in any
horizontal direction.

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 Air Mass Classification
4 general air mass classifications categorized
according to the source region.

polar latitudes P - located poleward of 60 degrees

north and south

tropical latitudes T - located within about 25 degrees

of the equator

continental c - located over large land masses--dry

marine m - located over the oceans----moist

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 Types of Fronts
Warm Front: warm air slides over departing
cold air- large bands of precipitation form

Cold front: Cold air pushes under a warm

air mass. Warm air rises quickly=narrow
bands of violent storms form

Occluded front: 2 air masses merge and

force warm air between them to rise
quickly. Strong winds and heavy
precipitation will occur
Stationary front: Warm or cold front
stops moving. Light wind and
precipitation may occur across the 33
front boundary
What happens when air masses meet at
fronts?

Warm
Cold

Cold air lifts the warmer air.

Clouds and precipitation form.
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Wind blows from high pressure areas to low pressure areas

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The pressure gradient and coriolis force cause low’s to spin
counter clock-wise and highs to spin clockwise

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 Atmospheric Transport
(Meteorological dispersion)

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 Atmospheric Transport of Radionuclides
Input data for Atmospheric Transport and diffusion calculation:

• Source
– Location
– Characteristics of released material
– Time and rate of release
– Height of release
– Thermal content of release
– Exit velocity

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 Atmospheric Transport of Radionuclides

• Meteorological data
– Location of nearest met tower
– Height of measurement and representativeness of the data
– Wind direction
– Wind speed
– Temperature gradient over height
– Turbulence and Stability of atmosphere

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 Atmospheric Transport of Radionuclides
Typical Meteorological parameters measured and accuracy requirements – to be
decided based on site-specific requirements

Variable Measured Typical Characteristics of Instrumentation System

Sensor type Accuracy

Wind direction (hourly value) Potentio metric  5o

Wind speed (hourly value) Cup Anemometer 0.1 m/s
Sensitive (e.g. Propeller type) 0.05 m/s
Temperature (hourly value) Resistance temperature detectors (RTDs)  0.5 K

Temperature difference (hourly) between Matched RTD pair  0.1 K

two elevations

Humidity (hourly value) Hygrograph  5% relative humidity

Precipitation (hourly value) Recording Tipping Bucket or Rapid Response 10%
type rain gauge (resolution of gauge)
Solar radiation (insolation) Solari meter 0.1 langley /min
(hourly value)

Net radiation (hourly value) net radio meter  0.01 langley /min
Time  5 min
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 Atmospheric Transport of Radionuclides

Turbulence and Atmospheric Stability

• Turbulence of atmosphere
– Mechanical (influenced by wind speed and surface roughness)
– Thermal (caused by solar radiation and differential heating)

• Atmospheric Stability:
– Mainly related to ‘Lapse Rate’: decrease in Temperature with height
1. Dry adiabatic lapse rate (0.98 degree C temperature decrease for every 100m of
rise from earth’s surface)
2. Environmental lapse rate – prevailing condition

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Scale of Air Motion

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 Turbulence
• Circular eddies of air movements over short timescales than
those that determine wind speed (unstable)
• Mechanical Turbulence:
– Caused by air moving over and around structures/vegetation
– Increases with wind speed
– Affected by surface roughness
• Thermal Turbulence:
– Caused by heating/cooling of the earth’s surface
– Flows are typically vertical
– Convection cells of upwards of 1000 - 1500 meters

What is the effect of turbulence on pollution?

Is turbulence desired?
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 Atmospheric Stability

• Concept that describes (non-)movement of air near

the surface

• Characterized by vertical temperature gradients

(Lapse Rates)
– Dry adiabatic lapse rate () = 0.976 oC/100 m ~ 1 oC/100 m
– International standard lapse rate = 0.0066 oC/m

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 Stability Conditions
Adiabatic lapse rate
Environmental lapse rate

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 Superadiabatic Lapse Rates (Unstable)
• Temperature decreases are greater than -10o C/km
• Occur on sunny days
• Characterized by intense vertical mixing
• Excellent dispersion conditions

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 Neutral Lapse Rates
• Temperature decreases are similar to the adiabatic lapse rate
• Results from:
– Cloudy conditions
– Elevated wind speeds
– Day/night transitions
• Describes good dispersion conditions

Isothermal Lapse Rates (Weakly Stable)

• Characterized by no temperature change with height
• Atmosphere is somewhat stable
• Dispersion conditions are moderate

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Atmospheric Transport of Radionuclides
Atmospheric Stability Classes
Based on wind speed, solar insolation and cloud cover

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Vertical temperature structure of the
atmosphere

Pillows (Light) Books (Heavy)

Books (Heavy) Pillows (Light)

STABLE
More likely
Inhibits Overturning to overturn 49
 But Sometimes …

Warmer Inversion
Light stuff
Heavy Stuff
Colder
“STABLE”
Temperature

Inversion – A layer of the atmosphere in

which temperature increases with height.
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 Inversions inhibit vertical mixing.
Can trap pollutants in the lower atmosphere.

Air sinks and

warms near
high pressure.

Creates an
inversion 1000s
of feet above
Temperature
the ground.
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 Inversions inhibit vertical mixing.
Can trap pollutants in the lower atmosphere.

Warmer

Colder

Colder, heavier air

trapped in valleys.
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 Inverted Lapse Rates (Strongly Stable)
• Characterized by increasing temperature with height

Inversion

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 Inversion
• Definition: temperature increases with altitude

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Inversion

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 Inversion
• Two major types of inversion:
– Subsidence Inversion: descent of a layer of air within a high
pressure air mass
– Radiational Inversion: radiation at night from the earth’s
surface into the local atmosphere

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 Radiation Inversions
• Result from radiation cooling of the ground
• Occur on cloudless nights – nocturnal
• Typically surface based
• Are intensified in river valleys
• Cause pollutants to be “trapped”
Fig 3.3

What happens to inversion when sun rises?

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 Radiation Inversions
• Breakup after sunrise
• Breakup results in elevated ground level
concentrations
• Breakup described as a fumigation

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 Radiation Inversions
• Elevated inversions are formed over urban areas
– Due to heat island effect
– Due to dust dome

Fig 3.4

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 Subsidence Inversion
• Associated with high-pressure systems
• Inversion layer is formed aloft
• Covers hundreds of thousands of square kms
• Persists for days

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 Subsidence Inversion
• Migrating high-pressure systems: contribute to the hazy
summer conditions in Midwest, SE and NE
• Semi-permanent marine high-pressure systems

– Results in a large number

of sunny calm days
– Inversion layer closest to
the ground on continental
side
– Responsible for air
stagnation over Southern
California

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 Inversions
• Frontal - warm air overrides cooler air
• Advective - warm air flows over a cold surface or
cold air

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 Mixing Height (MH)
• Height of air that is relatively vigorously mixed and where
dispersion occurs

What is the MH in a radiational inversion?

When does the max MH occur during a day? Min MH?
Which season has the max MH? Min MH?

Why is agricultural burning allowed only

during the daytime?

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 Dispersion from Point Sources
• Pollutants emitted in plume form
Why does plume expand downwind?

What are the factors that influence the

history of plume?

www.epa.gov/.../muncpl/landfill/s
w_combst.htm

Impact on air quality depends on

dispersion, which depends on
the height of plume

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 Dispersion from Point Sources
• Plume rise affects transport
– Effects maximum ground level concentrations (MGLCs)
– Effects distance of MGLCs

Under what conditions can we have a higher Effective

Stack Height?
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 Stack Plume: Looping

Strong turbulence

Is it at stable or unstable condition? High or low wind speed?

Does it happen during the day or night?

Is it good for dispersing pollutants?

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 Stack Plume: Coning

Strong wind, no turbulence

What is the stability class? Good vertical mixing?

On sunny or cloudy days?
Good for dispersing pollutants?
What is the ground level concentration as a function of
distance from the stack?

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 Stack Plume: Fanning

What is the stability class?

What is the top view of the plume?
What is the ground level concentration as a function of
distance from the stack?

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 Stack Plume: Fumigation

Why can’t the pollutants be dispersed upward?

Does it happen during the day or night?
What is the ground level concentration as a function of
distance from the stack?
What’s your opinion about requiring power plants to reduce
their power output from 3 am to 3 hours after sunrise?

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 Stack Plume: Lofting

Why can’t the pollutants be dispersed downward?

When does it happen?
What is the ground level concentration as a function of
distance from the stack?

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 Stack Plume: Trapping

What is the stability class?

What is the ground level concentration as a function of
distance from the stack?

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 Long-Range Transport
• Transport of pollutants hundreds/thousands of miles;
resulting in air quality problems far away from the source

Planetary Transport

• Stable air above PBL retards vertical mixing

• Transport out of PBL to free troposphere takes few hours
to few days
• Transport to top of troposphere with uniform mixing takes
about a week (for long-lived pollutants, e.g. CO2, CH4, CFC)

Why only long-lived?

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 Planetary Transport
• Significant concentration differences between two
hemispheres; cross equatorial mixing takes
approximately one year
Why?

Stratosphere -Troposphere
Exchange
Is the exchange fast or slow?
Why?

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 Stratosphere - Troposphere Exchange
• Mass exchange of troposphere with stratosphere takes
18 years
• Mass exchange of stratosphere with troposphere takes 2
years

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 Stratospheric Circulation
• Characterized by horizontal airflows (due to thermal gradients
between the equator and poles, and diabatic heating
associated with O3 absorption of UV light)
– North-South (meridianal)
– East- West (zonal)

• Driven by atmospheric pressure waves

− Poleward in the winter Hemisphere
− Significantly affects transport of O3
− Affects the movement of CFCs

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 Summary
Key Ideas
• Wind and rising air disperse pollutants.

• When air rises, clouds/precipitation can form.

• Clouds reduce sunlight, which slows production

of some pollutants; precipitation cleanses the air.

• Air rises, and winds are strongest, in the

vicinity of low pressure and fronts.

• Air sinks, and winds tend to be light, in the

vicinity of high pressure.

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Thank You

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