Air Pollution: Meteorology

and Dispersion Modeling

Air Quality and Meteorology
• Air quality depends on
– wind
– sunlight
– temperature
– precipitation and humidity
– Energy from the sun and earth’s rotation
drives atmospheric circulation
• Circulation, and the resulting interactions with
water and temperature differences produce the
climate and weather we observe
Air Quality and Meteorology
• Somewhat less observable issue relates to
mixing
• Easy to understand how wind and
turbulence produce mixing
• “Inherent” mixing property that derives
from pressure, volume, temperature
relationships
• Lapse rate – change in temperature with
height (altitude)
 Stability
• Dry adiabatic lapse rate – temperature decreases due
to lower pressure (ideal gas law)
dT
  1.00 C/100 m  -5.4 F / 1000 ft
dz

• Ambient (actual) lapse rate

< Г (temperature falls faster) unstable or
super-adiabatic
> Г (temperature falls slower) stable or
sub-adiabatic
= Г (same rate) neutral
Neutral Conditions
Unstable Conditions
Stable Conditions
 Example

Z(m) T(ºC)
2 -3.05
318 -6.21
T T2  T1  6.21   3.05
   0.0100 C/m
z z2  z1 318  2

 1.00 C/100 m
Since lapse rate = Г, atmosphere is neutral
 Example

Z(m) T(ºC)
10 5.11
202 1.09
T T2  T1 1.09  5.11
   0.0209 C/m
z z 2  z1 202  10

 2.09 C/100 m
Since lapse rate is more negative than Г,
(-1.00 ºC/100 m), atmosphere is unstable
 Example
Z(m) T(ºC)
18 14.03
286 12.56
T T2  T1 12.56  14.03
   0.0055 C/m
z z 2  z1 286  18

 0.55 C/100 m

Since lapse rate more positive than Г,

atmosphere is stable
 Temperature Inversions
• Extreme case of stability when lapse rate is
actually positive, i.e. temperature increases
with altitude
• Resulting temperature inversion prevents
nearly all upward mixing
Why are these plumes so different?
Effect of Lapse Rate on
Plumes
Point Source Gaussian Plume Model
Point Source Gaussian Plume Model
 Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model
• Model Structure and Assumptions
– pollutants released from a “virtual
point source”
– advective transport by wind
– dispersive transport (spreading)
follows normal (Gaussian) distribution
away from trajectory
– constant emission rate
 Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model
• Model Structure and Assumptions (cont)
– wind speed constant with time and
elevation
– pollutant is conservative (no reaction)
– pollutant is “reflected by ground”
– terrain is flat and unobstructed
– uniform atmospheric stability
 Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model
 E     y
2
     
2

1 1 H
 x, y,0, H     exp     exp    
 s y s z u    2  s y      2  s z   
 
Where χ = downwind concentration at
ground level (g/m3)
E = emission rate of pollutant (g/s)
sy,sz = plume standard deviations (m)
u = wind speed (m/s)
x, y, z, H = distances (m)
Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model – Effective Stack Height

H  h  H
where
H = Effective stack height (m)
h = height of physical stack (m)
ΔH = plume rise (m)
 Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model – Effective Stack Height
• Holland’s formula
vs    Ts  Ta  
1.5   2.68 10 P  d 
2
H  
u   T
 a  
where vs = stack velocity (m/s)
d = stack diameter (m)
u = wind speed (m)
P = pressure (kPa)
Ts = stack temperature (ºK)
Ta = air temperature (ºK)
 Point Source Gaussian Plume
Model – Wind Speed Correction
• Unless the wind speed at the virtual stack height
is known, it must be estimated from the ground
wind speed
p Where
 z2 
u2  u1   ux = wind speed at elexation zx
 z1  p = empirical constant