Air Pollution Meteorology and Control

Air pollution Meteorology

What is clean air ? 78% Nitrogen + 21% Oxygen + 1% Trace 340 ppm CO2 (0.034%)

Mixing/Dispersion
Meteorology
Vertical

Temperature Lapse Rate Wind Speed Direction

Horizontal

1. Vertical Dispersion
Vertical mixing of air and dispersion of pollutants depends

on the kind of atmospheric stability prevailing at any given time

Atmospheric stability depends on the rate of change of air

temperature with altitude, that may prevail at a particular time and location

But the rate at which the air temperature drops called the

environmental lapse rate or ambient lapse rate

Lapse Rates
Temperature Change With Height

Lapse rate is the rate of change of temperature with height Lapse rate is defined as = -T z

Atmospheric pressure decrease with

increasing height above the ground Atmosphere cools with height

What rate ?

Dry (Adiabatic) 10C/km Wet (Adiabatic) 6C/km (Release of heat with condensation)

TEMPERATURE PROFILE OF ATMOSPHERE

Thermosphe re

Ionosphere

Mesopaus e Mesospher e Stratopau se Stratospher e

Tropopaus e Troposphe re Temperature (K)

No exchange of heat of the parcel of air

under consideration with the outside air The lapse rate is in dependent of the prevailing atmospheric temperature gradient at any given time A moving parcel of air will always cool down 1o C per 100 m it rises in the atmosphere and will warm up 1o C for every 100 m sink The adiabatic lapse rate usually differs from the environmental lapse rate becoz of factors such as geographic features, wind ,and sunlight

Contd
Environmental lapse rates are classified as being

either strong or week (super adiabatic or sub adiabatic )

Strong lapse rates are associated with unstable

atmosphere, while week lapse rates are associated with a stable atmosphere
Increase in actual air temperature with increrasing

altitude is called a temperature inversion stable atmosphere

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Adiabatic Lapse Rate

100 m

c ba t i adia Sub

Elevation (m)

Sup e ra d iaba tic

T-1

Temperature (oC)

In ve rs io n

Lapse Rates Superadiabatic, Strong, Unstable

Temperature Reduction > 1 oC/100m

Subadiabatic, Weak, Stable Temperature Reduction < 1 oC/100m Neutral Temperature Reduction = 1 oC/100m Inversion (Extreme Subadiabatic) Temperature Increase with Height

Monroe Power Plant

Vertical Expansion of Continuous Plumes

Fanning
The plume has a large spread horizontally

and very little vertically.

Typically occurs at night in a very stable

boundary layer with strong surface inversion and weak variable winds

Fumigation
Is when the plume material gets rapidly

brought down to the ground level due to downward mixing This situation occurs shortly after sunrise due to surface heating and is slowly replaced by an unstable layer that grows up to the top of the plume This condition is usually short-lived but results in the highest ground level concentrations

Looping
occurs in very unstable and convective

conditions during midday and afternoon Large convection eddies take the plume material in successively upward and downward motions

Vertical Expansion of Continuous Plumes

Coning
This is when the plume looks like a cone in

both the horizontal and vertical scale This usually occurs under cloudy and windy conditions

Lofting
The plume stays above the surface

inversion This occurs shortly after transition from unstable to stable conditions near sunset. The plume can be thin or become quite thick Depending on the height of the stack and the rate of deepening of the inversion layer, the lofting condition may be very transitory or it may persist for several hours

Trapping
Plumes released in unstable atmosphere

disperse their material uniformly throughout the air (the Planetary Boundary Layer PBL) Trapping can lead to very high ground level concentrations when the inversion layer is low and there are weak winds

2. Horizontal Dispersion of

pollutants
Horizontal dispersion or spreading of air pollutants

depends on wind speed and direction

The concentration of air pollutants decreases

with increasing wind speed because, as the pollutants are discharged from the source, they are more rapidly separated and dispersed by the swiftly moving air

Wind velocity data, plotted in a graph called wind

rose

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Wind Rose
Wind roses are divided into 16 wind directions Each wind direction is divided into wind

speeds As the percent of time the wind blows from a particular directions gets larger, the portion of the bar representing the wind speed gets larger both in length and width

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Wind Rose

1 knot = 1.82 km/hr

http://www.epa.gov/ttn/naaqs/ozone/areas/wind.htm#dlfi

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Contd
Winds develop because of the combined effects of

temperature gradients and the rotation of Earth poles while friction and the forces resulting from Earths rotation deflect the air movement
topography, daily and seasonal variation in surface

Important factors that affect circulation patterns include

Since soil and rock warm up and cool faster than

water winds shoreline directed toward the water at night and inland during the day

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Vertical Expansion of Continuous Plumes

Lapse Rates and Atmospheric Stability Strong Lapse Condition (Looping)

Superadiabatic lapse rate

-strong instabilities with clear Associated daytime conditions , strong solar heating & light winds High probability of high concentrations sporadically at ground level close to stack.

Wind

Lapse Rates and Atmospheric Stability Weak Lapse Condition (Coning)

Stable with small-scale

turbulence Associated with cloudy moderate to strong winds Pollutants travel fairly long distances before reaching ground level in significant amounts Occurs in neutral atmospheric conditions

Wind

Lapse Rates and Atmospheric Stability Inversion Condition (Fanning)

Occurs under large

negative lapse rate Extremely stable atmosphere If plume density is similar to air, travels downwind at approximately same elevation

Wind

Lapse Rates and Atmospheric Stability Inversion Below, Lapse Aloft (Lofting)
Favorable in the sense

that less impacts at ground level. Pollutants go up into environment. They are created when atmospheric conditions are unstable above the plume and stable below

Wind

Lapse Rates and Atmospheric Stability Weak Lapse Below, Inversion Aloft (Trapping)
Most dangerous plume:

contaminants are all coming down to ground level. They are created when atmospheric conditions are stable above the plume and unstable below. This happens most often after the daylight sun has warmed the atmosphere, which turns a night time fanning plume into fumigation for about a half an hour.

Wind

ADIABATIC (1C/100 m) 1100 m ACTUAL 19 C Air Parcel at 1100 m 20 C Air Parcel

1000 m (say)

18 C

19 C

20 C
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ADIABATIC (1C/100 m) 1100 m

1000 m (say)

20 C Air Parcel

900 m 21 C Air Parcel at 1100 m ACTUAL

20 C

21C

22 C
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1100 m

19 C Air Parcel at 1100 m 20 C Air Parcel ADIABATIC (1C/100 m)

1000 m (say)

ACTUAL 19C 19.5 C 20 C

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Adiabatic Actual

WIND

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Adiabatic

Scenarios

Actual

Height

Temperature
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Adiabatic

Scenarios

Actual

Height

Temperature
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Adiabatic

Scenarios

Actual

Height

Temperature
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Stability
Dry Lapse Rate

Average

Wet Lapse Rate

Stable

Height Unstable

Temperature http://www.tpub.com/content/aerographer/14312/css/14312_47.htm
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Review
Dispersion and Mixing Influenced by : Wind
Speed Direction Wind Rose

Temperature Lapse Rates Dry adiabatic Wet Adiabatic Stability

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