Reading: Chap 3.

Atmospheric Dispersion & Transport

• Overview
• Wind
• Turbulence
• Ambient Stability & Inversion
• Plume Rise and Transport
• Plume Characteristics
• Long Range Transport
• Planetary Transport
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 The Atmosphere as a Sink
• Volcanoes and pollutants from other natural
sources
• Pollutants from human activities
– From the discovery of the utility of fire to the present
• Imperfect sink: limited ability to carry away
(transport), dilute (dispersion) and remove
(deposition) pollutants
– Local or regional overloading
Example?
– Topographical barriers
– Scale of air motion
– Atmospheric stability and inversion
– Atmospheric chemical reactions
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 Dispersion and Transport
• Transport - air motions carry pollutants from
one region of the atmosphere to another
• Dispersion - mixing of pollutants with air
• Planetary Boundary Layer (PBL): Pollutants
What’s the
are initially released into PBL depth of PBL?
– PBL well mixed in the context of a few months
– In shorter time scales pollutant mixing limited by
atmospheric conditions
• Air in Free Troposphere above the PBL is
relative stable

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 Scale of Air Motion

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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 % Meteorological
Is wind dilution mor effective in Station
urban area or countryside?
• Wind Direction
– Prevailing flows
– (Anti-)Cyclonic flows
– Effects of topography
• In a valley www.infomonitors.com
/weather_station.htp
• Along sea and lake coasts

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 Wind in a Valley

What is the wind direction at night? During the day?

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 Sea/Land Breeze and Circulation
What is the wind
direction at night?
During the day?

Will sea breeze

continue inland for
a long distance?

http://ess.geology.ufl.edu/ess/Notes/AtmosphericCirculation/daynight_lg.jpeg
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 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%

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 Valley Land-Sea

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 Monthly Wind Rose of Gainesville

What is the major wind direction in Gainesville?

What is the impact on local air quality if the wind

is variable? What if it’s persistent?

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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

Does dry or moist air have a larger temperature
change for the same change in elevation? Why?

Does lapse rate have anything to do with air quality?

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 • First Law of Thermodynamics
1
= 0 for adiabatic expansion
dq  dh  dP  C p dT  dP

• Barometric Equation
dP
  g
dZ
1
 C p dT  dP   gdZ

dT g
 
dZ Cp
Lapse Rate
How much is dT/dZ if Cp = 1.0034103 m2/s2-K? What if
Cp = 1.856103 m2/s2-K? (for dry air and moist air)
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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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 Inverted Lapse Rates (Strongly Stable)
• Characterized by increasing temperature with
height
Does it occur during the day or at night?
Is it associated with high or low pressure systems?
Does it improve or deteriorate air quality?
Inversion

www.co.mendocino.ca.us/aqmd/Inversions.htm
www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/air/weather.htm

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 Inversion
• Definition: temperature increases with altitude

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 Inversion

http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/aqmd/pages/Inversion-Art-(web).jpg
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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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 Radiational Inversions
• Result from radiational 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

www.co.mendocino.ca.us/aqmd
/Inversions.htm

What happens to inversion when sun rises?

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

de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smog

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 Radiational 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

apollo.lsc.vsc.edu/.../smog_var_geo.html
Fig 3.5
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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
Where else on earth
would have similar
phenomenon?
26 12/07/21 www.oceansatlas.org/.../datard.htm
 Inversions
• Frontal - warm air overrides cooler air
• Advective - warm air flows over a cold surface
or cold air

www.atmos.ucla.edu/.../inversions/Note03.html

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

Why is agricultural
burning allowed only
during the daytime?
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 does Phoenix have a larger MH than New Orleans?
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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
/sw_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

www.atmos.ucla.edu/.../chimneyplumes/Note03.html

Under what conditions can we have a higher

Effective Stack Height?
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 Stack Plume: Looping

Strong turbulence

http://www.med.usf.edu/~npoor/3

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

http://www.med.usf.edu/~npoor/4

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
Examples?

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?
www.newmediastudio.org/.../Trade_Winds.html

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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

Fig 3.9

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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 www.newmediastudio.org/.../Easterly_Waves.html

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

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